WNBA guard Sophie Cunningham responded to this week’s midterm elections not with a political endorsement, but with a message about personal responsibility, reposting a statement from entrepreneur Andy Frisella to her Instagram Stories on Wednesday as Democrats regained control of the House and Senate.
Frisella’s post argued that Americans place too much faith in elections and too little in their own ability to improve their lives. “One of the strangest things about our culture is how much faith we’ve placed in elections to change our lives and how little faith we’ve placed in our own ability to do the same,” the post read. “People will spend months arguing about who should lead the country while spending zero time considering how they could better lead themselves … and THAT is a much bigger problem than most people realize.”
The post continued: “Because the strength of a country is ultimately a reflection of the character, discipline and standards of the people who make it up. That’s you. Politics is downstream of culture. We can keep changing the people in charge, passing new laws and arguing over which party has the answers … but until we change the culture fostering, producing and tolerating the problems we have as a society, nothing fundamentally changes.”
“A population of weak, unhealthy, uninformed and dependent people is a hell of a lot easier to control than a population of strong, healthy, educated and self-reliant people. Your responsibility is to become the exact opposite of everything they want for you to the best of your abilities.”
Frisella closed the post with the line Cunningham chose to highlight: “If we want a better America … It starts with better Americans. There is no other way. Personal excellence is the Ultimate Rebellion.”
Cunningham, an impending free agent for the Indiana Fever, has generally avoided wading directly into partisan politics. She drew attention last month when President Donald Trump gave her a shoutout during a rally in Ohio.
Earlier this year, Cunningham made headlines for a different reason: speaking out in defense of women’s and girls’ sports during the 2026 season. In an ESPN story published over the summer, based on an interview Cunningham said took place in February, she addressed the backlash to her comments.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,'” Cunningham told ESPN. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
She described her overall political stance as centrist. “I’m very much in the middle. I agree with things on both sides, disagree with things on both sides,” Cunningham said. “And that’s all I’ve ever said about my political beliefs. But people love to assume.”
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