“It was just shockingly wrong,” McMahon, a mom of four from Minnesota, told CNN. “As if I’m not even a little bit right.”
Armed with a passion for constitutional law, along with more than a decade of teaching government and law, McMahon decided she wanted to combat the falsehoods with education.
She began posting videos of herself on Instagram, dispelling some of the myths she saw online and providing unbiased lessons on government basics such as how bills are passed in Congress and how the Electoral College works.
“I really just wanted Facebook to sit down and shut up,” McMahon said with a laugh.
McMahon said she believes people’s “innate desire to understand the world” causes them to cling to everything, even if they are “outright lies on Twitter.”
While she said it is easy to laugh at some of the more ridiculous lies circulating online, the “gruesome” uprising of January 6 proves how conspiracy theories can become a “real threat to national security.”
It seems that McMahon’s simple, straightforward “just the facts” approach to fighting such lies resonates.
In January, she said she heard from 10 people who revealed they believed some of the QAnon conspiracies until they got to her page.
“I understand that I cannot reach everyone,” she said. “But those 10 people won’t be spreading misinformation there anymore.”
And that, she said, is a victory.
Growing following of ‘governors’ like ‘America’s government teacher’
When she first started posting her daily government classes in late October 2020, she had been on Instagram for nine years and had amassed 14,000 followers.
In just four months, her account has grown to a community of 400,000 who have come to call themselves “governors.”
McMahon said the number of people flocking to her page gives her hope.
“There are people who are interested in facts and who are interested in the truth, even if it is not what they want to hear,” said McMahon.
That kind of influence, along with McMahon’s warm, humorous, and self-deprecating self-deprecation, could easily make her a social media influencer. Instead, she likes to call herself “America’s government teacher.”
The kind of government teacher who shares her favorite Amazon sweater will tell you about her husband’s recent kidney transplant and sometimes teach in her bathrobe while she puts on her makeup.
Another part of McMahon’s appeal is that she never reveals her political leanings, despite people constantly asking her. One follower even offered her $ 1,000 to tell him who she voted for. And unlike traditional media, she is not obligated to ratings or tries to make money.
“I don’t swear allegiance except fact, reason, and human decency,” she said.
McMahon has given us reason to believe that, despite what the polarizing headlines say, human decency abounds.
Since gaining so many followers, she has incentivized the “ governors ” into philanthropic endeavors, including a thank-you letter campaign for the Capitol’s cleanup crew whose job was to clean up the mess left behind by the January 6 riot.
The community has also raised more than $ 700,000 in the past five months – more than $ 560,000 of which was raised last week and will pay off more than $ 56 million in standard medical debt through RIPMedicalDebt.org.
She said the generosity of her “governors” is proof that Americans are aligned with what’s important.
“We all want very similar things of peace and prosperity and freedom,” said McMahon. “We want to help others and we just have differences in how we want to get there.”
Recently, McMahon was asked if she could invite someone to dinner, who would it be. In her typical bipartisan style, she said the late Judges Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia, as well as former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
She said these two sets of duos show exactly what she hopes her lessons can learn: that it is possible to disagree and still find an affinity for each other.
CORRECTION: This piece has been updated to correct the web address of RIPMedicalDebt. It’s RIPMedicalDebt.org.