Fact Check
Early October 2022 saw the internet light up with news and commentary about a new conservative dating app called The Right Stuff. In one example, social media users commented that women were not signing up for the app and that its users were thus heavily weighted toward men:
The partisan nature of the dating site naturally has led to partisan commentary and jabs. But the bottom line is that a representative from the app told Snopes by email that it is not yet open for active use, as of this writing (on Oct. 5, 2022). So it's impossible to know what the makeup of its users will be when it does open.
We acknowledge that we can't independently verify the internal data of a private company. But a spokesperson for the app told us in an email that the opposite is true, and so far the user base is skewing heavily female:
The app is not open yet but the overwhelming majority (over 70%) of the users are women. We will actually be launching a campaign soon to try and attract more high quality men. The invite process seems to be working heavily in the female direction but we are looking at ways to bring more balance to the app.
We reached back out to The Right Stuff asking on what date the app would be open for use and what they mean by "high quality men," and haven't yet received a response. We will update this story when and if we do.
Reports that the app had trouble securing female users might have originated from a Sept. 16, 2022, article published by the left-leaning politics news site The Daily Beast, which reported that those managing the app are a number of political figures associated with former U.S. President Donald Trump, and were trying to initially launch it in Washington, D.C., among Republican congressional staffers.
It was being promoted by Ryann McEnany, who is the sister of Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, but with little success, according to that article:
Two Republican staffers in Washington, D.C., said many young conservative women have ignored McEnany’s outreach and have instead jeeringly passed around screenshots of her messages to group chats.
Other Republican staffers in D.C.—the sort who boast about downing drinks at the Navy Yard watering hole Mission and claim their pronouns are “Yee” and “Haw” on their Instagram profiles—told The Daily Beast the app has an array of possible problems, like liberals masquerading as right-wingers and the awkward potential of matching them with conservative staffers they already know.
“It’s all of Mitch McConnell’s staffers,” a female Republican operative said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because she still works in pro-Trump politics.
We'll update this fact check should demographic information about the app's users become available.