Hillsdale College students stand with American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp (right) and his wife, Mercedes (left) at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
Elizabeth Laux | Courtesy
National Harbor, MD. — “There are only three colleges that I would send my kids, only three in the country, possibly the world,” nationally syndicated conservative radio host, Glenn Beck said Friday in a video for freshman Elizabeth Laux during a broadcast commercial break at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week. “I’m not sure which one is No. 1 but probably Hillsdale.”
Roughly 12 percent of the Hillsdale College student body joined thousands of conservatives from across the country at CPAC 2016 in National Harbor, Maryland on March 3-5.
According to the American Conservative Union—the entity which organizes CPAC—55 percent of those attending the conference were either high school or college students.
“The increase in student participation had a lot to do with this year being a presidential election year,” Hillsdale College Republicans Trustee senior Sam Holdeman said. “That said, I think it’s not just the speakers that attract students but the chance to meet and greet and the job opportunities.”
Hillsdale had one of the largest groups from any single college or university, regardless of size.
Everywhere you turn there’s a @Hillsdale student walking around @CPAC. It’s in our blood. #HillsdaleCPAC
— Randy Keefe (@RandyKeefe) March 3, 2016
“I highly doubt any school has as many students as we have,” Hillsdale College Republicans President sophomore Brant Cohen said.
Turning Point USA, a grassroots political organization for conservative millennials, brought a total of 300 students to the conference—though they have more than 1,000 chapters throughout the country. According to Turning Point, about 700 students applied, but the organization couldn’t book enough hotel rooms.
“The College Republicans National Communications was very happy to see that Hillsdale had a huge showing at CPAC and was by far one of the biggest chapters in attendance,” CRNC Director Carolina Hurley said. “CPAC has a great way of bringing students from across the country together.”
Cohen said since so many students attended this year’s CPAC trip through the Hillsdale College Republicans, the College Republicans board members, especially Holdeman, have been planning the event since November 2015.
In addition to coordinating the buses with which the students would travel to Washington, D.C., finding a hotel to accommodate students, and registering students for the conference, Cohen and Holdeman organized fundraising to lower the cost of the trip to students.
Part of the effort to make the trip cheaper was the filming of a minute-long video centered around former President Ronald Reagan’s speech at CPAC in 1981. CRNC gave the Hillsdale College Republicans a discount on CPAC registration in return for shooting the video.
According to ACU Communications Director Ian Walters, the ACU worked with the CRNC to provide discounts to several College Republicans chapters to make CPAC more accessible to college students.
“Reagan asked one of our former chairman to always make CPAC as accessible as possible to young people and students,” Walters said. “We always try to keep that promise.”
Hillsdale students said they enjoyed CPAC for a number of different reasons: sophomore John Gage was excited to see all of the speeches by presidential candidates.
“I came to CPAC to watch all the different republican presidential candidates defend their positions to conservatives,” Gage said. “I am disappointed that Donald Trump did not feel the need to defend himself to conservative voters and suspect that he will not show up to support us if elected president, just as he failed to show up to CPAC.”
Trump has attended the past three CPACs, but did not speak at CPAC 2016.
About 15 students including Director of Michigan State Millennials for Cruz freshman Abigail Allen, had the opportunity to meet GOP presidential candidate Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at a CRNC event.
Allen spent the third day of the conference working with Millennials for Cruz, handing out fake diplomas from Trump University and taking media inquiries next to a chicken holding a sign mocking Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.
“I was interviewed by several news outlets, including The Washington Post, NowThis, and American Action News,” Allen said in an email.
Trump’s absence at #CPAC2016 does not go unnoticed. #HillsdaleCPAC pic.twitter.com/n8kpc8IeHs
— Hillsdale Collegian (@HDaleCollegian) March 5, 2016
In addition to attending the conference, junior Pietro Moran made time to tour Washington, D.C.
“I guess it’s worth mentioning that this is my third time coming, so it got easier to budget time,” Moran said. “From the city, there’s so much to do in D.C., so I think coming from Hillsdale, you want to discover the food and the cuisine in the city. You want to experience the night live.”
A number of recent Hillsdale graduates also helped out vendors at the conference and covered the event for the media. Kat Timpf ’10 with the Fox News Channel, Phil Wegmann ’15 with the Daily Signal, Betsy Woodruff ’12 with the Daily Beast, and Tyler O’Neil ’12 with P.J. Media were just a few of the Hillsdale graduates at this year’s conference.
“I think the trip is very impactful for the student body with the opportunities that CPAC has for networking, meeting speakers, and politicians,” Holdeman said. “But it’s also our alumni connections and all the job opportunities.”
In addition to the opportunity for connections, students learned how much the Hillsdale name meant to other CPAC attendees.
