What You Need To Know About Candace Owens

Candace Owens is quickly becoming a leading voice in conservative politics. Owens is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and is a spokesperson for conservative organization Turning Point USA (via PolitiFact).

Owens rose to fame on YouTube, posting political commentary. "Given a million chances, I would have never guessed that it would have led me to this point," she wrote on her website. "Perhaps that's one of life's secrets – don't dream, just keep going."

Owens is also behind Blexit, which encourages Black voters to leave the Democratic Party. "Blexit is a Renaissance," she told Fox News about the movement in 2018. "Blexit is the Black exit from the Democratic Party. It's the Black exit from permanent victimhood, the Black exit from the false idea that we are somehow separate from the rest of America." The movement made waves after it was revealed that Kanye West helped her design the movement's logo, although the rapper later distanced himself from Owens, claiming on Twitter that he only introduced Owens to the true designer of the logo. "I never wanted any association with Blexit," he said. "I have nothing to do with it."

Owens wasn't always a conservative, though. Before becoming a supporter of Trump, she was quite critical of the Republican Party. That changed in 2016, when she began working with a site called Social Autopsy which, according to its Kickstarter campaign (via NBC) aimed to be "the first-ever search database that compiles and allows the public to easily access the digital footprint of individuals and companies."

Critics of the project believed it was an invasion of privacy that would lead to doxing. In response, they doxed Owens, leaking her personal information online. Owens also became the target of threatening messages, many of which were racist. The situation led to Owens switching political sides. "I became a conservative overnight," she said on The Rubin Report in 2018. "I realized that liberals were actually the racists. Liberals were actually the trolls."

To the surprise of many, Owens was not invited to speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention (per Heavy). That doesn't mean she isn't throwing herself into Trump's re-election campaign, though, and has been critical of Kamala Harris, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's running mate. "I am SO EXCITED that we get to watch @KamalaHarris, who swore into congress as an 'Indian-American', now play the 'I'm a black a woman' card all the way until November," she wrote on Twitter. Fun times! #MAGA"