Meet the NYC singles looking for the 'right' stuff — and to Make America Hot Again

New York Post

a day ago

The hottest pickup line in singles bars today? 'Hi, I'm MAGA.'
No longer is it a liability to be an out-of-the-closet Republican — it's actually a calling card, young singles told The Post.
Comely conservatives are simply looking for a mate to MAGA with — and they're breaking through in big, blue cities, at right-wing ragers, on targeted dating apps and at Trump rallies.
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'It's never been a better time to date as a conservative,' crowed CJ Pearson, co-chair of the GOP Youth Advisory Council, who punched back against a January New York magazine piece smearing his diverse DC inauguration party as all-white.
'Being conservative right now is the coolest it's ever been,' added the single DC-based political advisor, who boasted that women want to be with a guy who's a 'provider and who they feel safe around.'
Good luck finding that in a guy 'with pronouns in his bio,' he added.
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20 'Being conservative right now is the coolest it's ever been,' CJ Pearson, co-chair of the GOP Youth Advisory Council, told The Post.
Getty Images for DailyWire+
Red hot and heavy
For MAGA singles looking for love, like Raquel Debono, 'hotness is a bipartisan issue.'
That's why she founded Make America Hot Again, a cheeky movement throwing parties for young conservatives around NYC at hotspots like downtown's Sincerely, Ophelia and Trump Tower.
'No more of these stuffy CPAC vibes,' the 29-year-old said. 'We actually have fun and we're normal.'
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20 Raquel Debono, shown at a Make America Hot Again event, formerly worked for the Date Right Stuff app and now runs Make America Hot Again events.
Nick Tan
20 Raquel Debono is shown among singles ready to mingle at a Make America Hot Again black and white party.
Alan Shindelman
With her regular bacchanals that can swell to as many as 300 people, love is definitely in the air.
And apparently in the bathroom stalls.
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'There was a couple in the bathroom who were doing something highly inappropriate at my last party,' Debono told The Post about the politically-charged passion at a May bash, which attracted 50 sharp-dressed attendees.
20 Paula Scanlan, Raquel Debono and Debra Lea party it up at a Make America Hot Again event.
Nick Tan
20 Raquel Debono rocks a signature red Make America Hot Again cap alongside Emily Wilson at a get-together.
'It was getting hot and heavy in there,' she said. 'At least there was a happy ending somewhere.'
The 29-year-old single lawyer from the West Village is happy to watch love blossom from the sidelines.
'That's why I throw these — I'm trying to find my husband,' Debono said of the parties that have a lopsided 60-40 split in favor of guys heavily representing the 'bro and tech vote.'
'I have met a few lovely young men, but as they say, the coach doesn't play.'
Politically-right prospects
20 Vanessa Simon, a Queens Republican and former city council candidate, told The Post that being a conservative single 'raises your stock' these days.
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In the golden age of conservatism, with control of the House, Senate and White House, singles are feeling fancy-free.
'It raises your stock,' Vanessa Simon, a former Queens Republican city council candidate, told The Post about dating as a female conservative in NYC. 'It's actually a conversation starter — definitely not a deal-breaker.'
The 30-something credited the 'silent majority' with the ease of meeting MAGA-adjacent men in the city, even when she drops the Republican-bomb into conversation: 'I've yet to have a guy walk away.
'It's a really good time for conservatives to date.'
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Yet political junkies are nothing if not strategic.
20 Vanessa Simon said she's 'yet to have a guy walk away' when she's identified as being with the GOP.
@vanessa4ny/instagram
20 When it comes to finding single allies, conservative Toria Brooke basically feels it 'really matters' to be in the right place at the right time.
'It really matters putting yourself in a place geographically' that's going to yield the 'highest chance of meeting like-minded people,' said 32-year-old Toria Brooke, a conservative commentator and reporter who lives outside of Nashville.
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Back when she worked in NYC, the guys she met mostly leaned left 'unless they were in finance.'
Nashville, with its healthy share of 'bigger, bearded, rugged men' — a breath of fresh air from the 'yuppie, feminine' dudes proliferating in other cities — was a big draw.
20 Toria Brooke sees a huge — refreshing — difference between NYC and Nashville.
She cites 'patriotism' as being hot — prevalent at the fundraisers and movie premieres at Mar-a-Lago she attends — though she's not found lasting love, yet.
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'I've made some great connections, but it's just the luck of the draw.'
'We can't give up'
20 Brent Morden, vice president of the New York Young Republican Club, said you just need to 'know where to look' to find conservative singles in the Big Apple.
20 Dan Huff (center) is the founder of Date Right Stuff for conservative singles.
Nick Tan
But don't count out the Big Apple, said singles.
'There are plenty of options in New York — if you know where to look,' claimed Brent Morden, vice president of the New York Young Republican Club, whose wild December gala made Post headlines.
Date Right Stuff, an app for singles with shared values, has seen 'tens of thousands of downloads right after the election,' according to 40-year-old co-founder Dan Huff.
The 'big bump' adds to the app's some 400,000 total downloads as the team focuses on New York with sought-after events that have drawn 'hundreds of attendees and generated strong buzz.'
20 The Date Right Stuff party attracted loads of well-dressed singles on Election Night.
Nick Tan
'There's a spark in New York now, a reawakening,' added Huff, a former lawyer in the Trump White House who said the app boasts at least 75 marriages.
'Our main focus is to build critical masses in these Democratic cities to make sure these people have somewhere to go,' added Micaela Bishop, the app's 29-year-old New York-based chief growth officer.
20 Micaela Bishop works as the chief growth officer for Date Right Stuff.
Nick Tan
20 Gianna Prignano said the number of Republican men in NYC is in women's favor.
20 A Date Right Stuff party draws right-leaning singles in New York City.
Nick Tan
'It's probably easier for a woman to find a conservative guy than it is reversed,' asserted New York Young Republican Club recruitment chair Gianna Prignano.
However, the 25-year-old Westchester native admitted the climate is better now than it was four years ago.
'I feel like it's at the beginning of us turning around. We can't give up on New York.'
20 Members of the New York Young Republicans Club gather to celebrate NYYRC's 114th anniversary and the inauguration of the club's new president, Stefano L. Forte, late last month in New York.
REUTERS
20 'Our main focus is to build critical masses in these Democratic cities to make sure these people have somewhere to go,' Micaela Bishop told The Post.
Nick Tan
'In such high demand'
MAGA men insist the pendulum has already swung back in favor of 'traditionalism.'
Trad wife is in and 'girlboss is out,' asserted the 22-year-old Pearson, adding that women are 'over it' when it comes to 'beta male cucks.'
'Right now, liberal women are super into conservative men,' he said. 'It feels a little rebellious.'
Pearson said he's turned the heads of women in bars when he evangelizes about the issues he holds dear, like not splitting the bill anymore.
'Conservative men are in such high demand,' adding that women are done 'splitting the bill or Venmo-ing someone for a $5 cup of coffee.'
'Gen Z is yearning for a return to tradition,' asserted Pearson, 'and we're actively bringing that about.'
'If I can spread the good word and bring them over to our side, I've done my duty.'
For Nashville's Toria Brooke, it's self-defeating to soften values for the sake of a potential romance that's doomed to fail along political divides.
'You save yourself a lot of trouble by trying to fit a square peg in a round hole,' she lamented.
'There's nothing better than a conservative woman,' Pearson said, specifically someone who knows she doesn't 'need' a guy, but wants a man 'being a man.'
20 Toria Brooke shuns 'trying to fit a square peg in a round hole,' she told The Post.
He believes the concepts of 'emasculation' and the 'obsession over toxic masculinity' are finally being put out to pasture.
'Conservatives have the most fun,' he said. 'You can be unfiltered and not worry about getting cancelled or losing your livelihood.'
As Debono said in her video: 'Who would disagree with a hotter America? Well, liberals would. That's who.'
'The best is yet to come'
20 Isabella DeLuca slaps down stereotypes and assumptions about conservatives.
Stephen Yang
For Isabella DeLuca, the narrative that conservatives are 'close-minded, xenophobic and bigoted couldn't be further from the truth.'
The 25-year-old conservative, who spoke openly about her arrest and pardon for her two-minute entry into the Capitol on January 6, thought she would have been married 'with at least a kid or two by now,' like her mom was at her age.
'Friends my age feel behind,' said the Long Islander, who knows 'getting married and having a family' would 'fulfill' her.
'I don't want to spend the duration of my 20s partying and quote-unquote living my life to come into my 30s and realize I made a mistake.'
20 Long Island resident DeLuca says she would be 'fulfilled' starting a family.
Stephen Yang
For the single Morden, thinking of the New York Young Republican Club's upcoming 'Sail Away Summer Soiree' evokes the president's favorite mantra, 'The best is yet to come.'
'I haven't found love yet,' said the New Yorker, 'but I'm very optimistic for myself.'