This article is the first in a six-part MSNBC Daily series, “Meet the Freshmen,” featuring six of Congress’ newest faces — three Republicans and three Democrats — in a series of diverse columns that explore the new members’ backstories, policies, home districts and where they fit in this historic political moment. You can read the rest of the series here.
The creator of one of Facebook’s most popular MAGA news sites was sworn in Friday as the Republican Party’s youngest member of Congress, replacing Rep. Michael Burgess for Texas’ 26th District. Already boasting several committee appointments, 30-year-old Rep. Brandon Gill looks poised to be a reliable loyalist to President-elect Donald Trump in the nation’s legislature.
Gill comes to Congress as a former Wall Street employee turned clickbait mogul, transformed in no small part by his relationship to longtime conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza. Gill married D’Souza’s daughter, Danielle, in 2017 and entered the political media landscape alongside his father-in-law in 2022.
That year, Gill launched a hyperpartisan conservative news blog called DC Enquirer under a company that lists Gill, D’Souza and D’Souza’s daughter as stakeholders. Gill told his wife on her podcast that he started the site to create the kind of “consistent pro-Trump, pro-Republican news outlet” he felt was missing from the right-wing media landscape.
Gill comes to Congress in no small part by his relationship to longtime conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza.
DC Enquirer quickly caught fire on Facebook. According to reporting from the Popular Information newsletter, Gill’s news blog beat The Washington Post’s account in engagement (likes, reactions, comments and shares) on the social media site, just 36 days after its first article was published thanks to a network of Facebook pages owned by its parent company. Gill’s site also quickly gained the attention of Trump, who has shared the site’s articles on Truth Social nearly 150 times. According to Gill, Trump’s admiration goes even deeper: Gill said Trump once sent a thank you note to one of the site’s authors after they wrote an article praising his golf handicap.
Gill also forged his political career while helping to market his father-in-law’s film “2000 Mules,” a widely disputed compilation of conspiracy theories alleging massive voter fraud in 2020 elections.
The film circulated widely among conservative activists and was part of the cacophony of misinformation about voter fraud that inspired widespread calls for vigilante surveillance of ballot drop boxes to protect against alleged “mules” during 2022 midterm elections. In Arizona that year, individuals bearing firearms lurked near a drop box and drew accusations of voter intimidation.
Dinesh D’Souza and Salem Media, the film’s distributor, have since issued several apologies regarding the 2022 movie and withdrawn it from distribution. D’Souza recently admitted that many of his film’s core claims were based on “inaccurate information” but maintained that the “underlying premise of the film holds true.” Gill has not similarly commented on the film but appeared to refer to its central premise as recently as August.
Gill’s access to D’Souza’s right-wing media empire was an undeniably decisive factor in his electoral success, which managed to surmount the millions of dollars that Republican donors spent hoping to undermine his campaign. Gill used D’Souza’s social media accounts, many of which have millions of followers, to announce his campaign in 2023 and made many campaign appearances on popular pro-Trump programs hosted by the likes of Sebastian Gorka, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Jenna Ellis and Charlie Kirk. It also likely helped his campaign’s fundraising efforts, which brought the vast majority of its cash from donors outside of the 26th District. According to Federal Election Committee records, Gill’s campaign received some of its largest donations from Gill and D’Souza family members, as well as a film producer who worked for D’Souza and a conservative media entrepreneur.
During his campaign, Gill also employed his right-wing media connections in a literal sense. He hired writer and consultant Ryan Girdusky, who was banned from CNN this year after he made a bigoted remark toward a Muslim panelist. (Gill wrote on X that Girdusky “did nothing wrong.”) Sterling Mosley, an editor at DC Enquirer, is serving as a transition aide for Gill as he enters Congress, according to his LinkedIn profile. Gill has rarely articulated political positions that deviate from Trump or that are specific to the district he was elected to represent. His campaign appeared to take nearly all of its cues from Trump, even quoting the president-elect on its issues page. In the brief section devoted to energy policy, one bullet point simply read “Drill Baby Drill.” Gill has rarely articulated political positions that deviate from Trump or that are specific to the district he was elected to represent. Like the Trump campaign, Gill has shared anti-immigrant talking points, derided “diversity hires,” echoed far-right memes, shared nonsense about immigrants eating pets and pressed for mass deportations. Lauding Daniel Penny, who was acquitted after he killed Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train, Gill said at a New York Young Republicans Club event in December: “I think we need a lot more Daniel Pennys in this country, because there are far too many Jordan Neelys.” On X, Gill also praised Penny’s acquittal and remarked, “It’s still not illegal to be white.” At an event last month, Gill remarked that he had “no interest in bipartisanship.” Since his victory, Gill ran unopposed to become the House freshman class president, a largely symbolic position, and was appointed to the House Judiciary, Oversight and Budget Committees. Not bad for a political novice and a testament to how Trump sycophancy is good for Republican career advancement. Gill’s success in politics is a harbinger for the next generation of Republican politicians ready to replace current GOP members as they vacate their positions: flush with powerful backers, savvy to social media and eager to deliver on the internet-poisoned daydreams of today’s conservative movement.
Jared Holt
Jared Holt is a reporter and researcher who studies hate and extremist movements in the United States and their relationships to the internet. 
