How Claudia Conway, Kellyanne Conway’s teen daughter, became a celebrated voice of opposition (2024)

Kellyanne Conway’s 15-year-old daughter has more than one million followers on TikTok, and it’s not because she’s an expert when it comes to dance challenges.

Claudia Conway has become a sensation on the social network and beyond for posting videos that often criticize her mother and the administration of President Donald Trump. Her commentary has become the toast of Twitter as well as a subject of debate, one reignited following the COVID-19 outbreak at the White House.

Last week, Claudia scooped her mother, a senior counselor to the president, on the news of Kellyanne’s own positive COVID-19 test. Claudia, who later tested positive for COVID-19 herself, had said she noticed her mother coughing in the house after Trump tested positive, and predicted Kellyanne’s test result. (In a comment on one of her TikTok videos, Claudia said her COVID-19 symptoms include a pounding headache, difficulty breathing and chills.)

In a later video that has since been deleted, Kellyanne can be seen admonishing Claudia.

“You’ve caused so much disruption,” she says in the video. “You lied about your f---ing mother, about COVID! About COVID!” she screams.

“It’s how I interpreted it,” Claudia says in reply.

“You’re taping me again?” says Kellyanne, ostensibly noticing Claudia’s phone.

In another video, Claudia clarifies the results of her mother’s COVID-19 testing at her mother’s urging.

"Right now,” Kellyanne can be heard saying.

“A little clarification from my previous posts,” Claudia says in a caption on the video. “My mother claims that she did not lie to me. She had three tests done. First negative, second two positive. We were not in communication. I misinterpreted it.”

A conflict between Conway and her parents has played out publicly in recent months.

In August, Kellyanne said she would be leaving the White House after Claudia made allegations of abuse and said she was seeking emancipation from her parents. (Kellyanne did not say that was the reason for her departure.)

At the same time, Kellyanne’s husband, attorney George Conway, said he would be leaving his position with the Lincoln Project, a Republican political action committee working to unseat Trump in the 2020 election.

Kellyanne grew up in Atco and the Conways have homes in Alpine and Ventnor City. She responded to the attention Claudia’s videos have gotten on Twitter early Tuesday.

“My daughter, Claudia, is beautiful & brilliant,” Kellyanne tweeted. “She has access to top doctors & health care & lives comfortably. Like all of you, she speculates on social media. Yet she’s 15. You are adults. We have COVID, but it’s clear who’s really sick.”

Of course, Claudia’s family is no stranger to public conflict.

Kellyanne and George have famously maintained opposing positions on Trump in the public sphere, including social media.

“We disagree about plenty. But we are united on what matters most: the kids," Kellyane said in a statement announcing her White House departure, focusing the reason for her exit on the need to supervise remote learning for her four children.

Caution: some videos below contain profanity.

The Conways have asked media to refrain from covering their daughter and her TikTok videos.

Still, social media has been awash with praise for Claudia — some have even mused that she should be awarded a Pulitzer for her dispatches from inside the Conway household.

Consider the teen’s TikTok bio: “currently trending on twitter for no apparent reason. the media is obsessed."

When officials publicly downplayed the president’s COVID-19 symptoms, Claudia claimed Trump was not doing well.

She responded to an announcement from Trump that he was “feeling really good” and would be leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he was treated for COVID-19.

“He is so ridiculous,” Claudia said. “Apparently he is doing badly lol and they are doing what they can to stabilize him.”

“I’m furious,” she said in a TikTok video after Trump’s positive COVID-19 test. “Wear your masks. Don’t listen to our idiot f---ing president piece of s---. Protect yourselves and those around you."

On Twitter, people are saying that Claudia has emerged as a whistleblower and a reliable source of information in the face of White House obfuscation.

“You are a monster who has contributed to the lies which murdered hundreds of thousands of people,” Hollywood producer and director Judd Apatow tweeted in reply to Kellyanne’s tweet about her daughter. “Claudia is a bright light of truth who has the courage to call out the lies you have sold your soul to sell. I wish her the best life. She is already doing great things.”

Others are more skeptical of Claudia being labeled as a standard bearer for the resistance, pointing out that Kellyanne may be playing a role in her daughter’s social media presence (beyond her brief appearance in some recent TikTok videos to prompt her daughter’s “clarification").

“Do people seriously think Kellyanne is just accidentally dropping key information in front of her teenager who is very active on social media and invested in sharing family secrets?” author Roxane Gay tweeted. "Guys. Come on.”

Some discouraged the framing of Claudia as a political figure, citing both her age and mental health issues she has been open about on social media.

“Stop fantasizing about making Claudia Conway into a cast member in your next teen heroine film,” comedian Phillip Henry tweeted. “She’s not Katniss Everdeen, you weirdos. She’s just a teen fighting with her parents. Laugh and go.”

“My own daughter is 15, it’s an interesting age, in many ways they are so mature but they are also still children,” writer and activist Shay Stewart Bouley tweeted. “My heart breaks for Claudia Conway, she needs her parents to be better people, and for adults to leave her be.”

Still others speculated a reality show was in the cards, painting Kellyanne as a kind of Kris Jenner waiting to seize on a Kardashian-like opportunity.

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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com.