Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer turned prominent conservative activist, is considering a political run of her own after successfully pushing pro-women legislation across multiple states.
Gaines first gained national attention for her advocacy against biological male participation in women’s sports. She told Fox News on Monday that she’s considering the possibility of seeking elected office.
“It’s never what I saw myself doing,” said Gaines, who majored in health sciences at the University of Kentucky and originally planned to pursue dentistry.
“But now, of course, with this issue and more, I would say the whole America-first agenda. I am just so passionate, I care so deeply, and I love it, so we’ll see,” she said. “It’s definitely not something I would rule out. I don’t think I’m that crazy yet, because I do think you have to be a bit clinically insane to voluntarily do that. But I do believe that maybe eventually influencing policy in that way is something I see myself doing.”
Gaines has already made significant legislative impact without holding office. A law named after her, “The Riley Gaines Act,” recently passed in the Georgia House of Representatives, which seeks to ban biological males from girls’ and women’s sports in that state.
Her “Stand With Woman Scorecard” has become a political litmus test for candidates.
The scorecard evaluates candidates on their support for legislation preserving “female opportunities and private spaces” and aims to “hold leaders accountable for their votes and stances on women’s sex-based rights.”
Gaines’ scorecard recently gained her first Democratic signer in Katy Stamper, who is running for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District against Republican incumbent Rep. Barry Loudermilk.
Stamper said she signed on despite potential political consequences within her party.
“It will hurt me with a very small percentage of people. But that, in and of itself, is not important to me,” she explained. “I’m much more concerned with speaking about this so that people understand the underlying cause of it.”
While considering her own political future, Gaines cited Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard as her top political role model.
“She’s so fierce, and she is so strong, and what you see is what you get,” Gaines said. “She stands firm for what she knows to be true, for what she knows to be right and righteous and moral and just. And I think we need more of that. We don’t have a lot of that, it is a very rare trait, especially in the political sphere.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who has worked with Gaines on legislation including the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” has praised the former swimmer’s political future.
“I think Riley has the ability to pursue whatever she wants to pursue,” Blackburn told Fox News. “She thought she would be a dentist, and life has taken some interesting turns, and I am so pleased to see the work that she’s doing to protect women and girls.”
In the meantime, Gaines has vowed to campaign against politicians who support transgender men in women’s sports. Following Monday’s Senate vote where every Democrat opposed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, Gaines took to social media to target specific senators.
“You have a daughter. Have you no shame? Georgians are watching. I will make it my mission to do what I can to remove you from your senate seat in 2026,” Gaines wrote to Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-G.A.
Name and shame them all.
Specifically, I want to highlight GA Democrat @SenOssoff. You have a daughter. Have you no shame? Georgians are watching. I will make it my mission to do what I can to remove you from your senate seat in 2026. pic.twitter.com/9mvRQfrRAs
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) March 4, 2025