The political landscape in the U.S. has changed quite a bit since the 2016 election, and nine students from the Ball State College Republicans got to see that change up close and personal last week.
Members of the club attended the multi-day Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland last week to meet fellow Republicans and hear leaders in the party speak.
The speakers at CPAC included President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Ted Cruz, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.
This year was the second time Andrew Hammer, a junior economics major and the chairman of the Ball State College Republicans, attended the conference.
"At the time [in 2016], we were very divided as a party because we all had our own candidate," Hammer said. "This year it is definitely 100 percent behind the president."
Hammer said he views CPAC as a meeting of different groups within the conservative movement — the officials and politicians who live their lives pursuing conservative policy and the grassroots movement. He also sees CPAC as a ”meeting of college Republicans” and recalls seeing a lot of college-aged students at the event.
"I think that sometimes conservatives are depicted in a way that they're angry and today in this experience that's not what we seen," Hammer said. “I think they are truly happy and inspired by the way the country is moving.”
Isaac Miller, a freshman political science major and vice chairman of the Ball State College Republicans, said his favorite aspect of the trip was meeting people from the conservative side of politics.
"The network experience that you get at this event, which is incredible, shaking hands, bumping elbows with people that are major in the political world," Miler said.
He described seeing Trump, Pence and other leaders of the Republican Party as a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” Miller said he personally believes that the main demographic the conference was speaking to was millennials.
"I think there is a wide variety of a conservative basis on campuses that just isn't as public about it,” Miller said. “I think that really got show at CPAC where you are surrounded by thousands of millennials."
He believes that CPAC's message to Republican millennials is to be proud of their conservative beliefs.
"You can have your political opinion, you can yell about it, you can argue about it but you can’t be proud of it. I think that CPAC really offers that opportunity," Miller said.
Kristin Baker, a junior business administration major, has been to CPAC twice and she said the atmosphere was very different compared to last year.
“This year I would only describe CPAC with the word 'united,'" Baker said. "Everyone was there to forward the conservative movement no matter what kind of conservative you are.”
Baker said within the Ball State College Republicans, students had varying views of Trump in the primaries but “everyone was supportive of him at CPAC this year.”
As for universities around the country, Baker believes it's “a given fact” that colleges and student bodies lean left.
"It's very easy to go to college and feel as a conservative that you are one of very few,” she said.
Baker said she believes there are a high number of conservatives throughout campuses due to the turnout at CPAC.
"It's about 50/50 on the amount of college-aged students and young professionals to those who are not," she said. "You are there and you’re surrounded by conservative leaders on their campus and they are going to be conservative leaders of our country and of our world one day."
One of Baker's favorite speeches was from a member of the UK Parliament, Nigel Farage, who is looked at as a leader of the Brexit movement in the UK.
"He talked a lot about patriotism and really made you feel good for being an American because we have elected these Republicans now in office,” Baker said. “We are on the right track, we are solving problems, and he really highlighted that."
The Daily News also asked students who attended CPAC what they thought of Milo Yiannopoulos being disinvited from the conference.
Prior to the conference, a video of Yannopoulos resurfaced that appeared to show him defending pedophilia.
Hammer believes the American Conservative Union made the right choice by withdrawing Yiannopoulos’ invitation to speak at CPAC.
"Once they reversed that invitation I thought that was a smart move,” Hammer said, “Once something like that occurs or that’s uncovered he can’t speak for a movement or whatever because he is legitimized."
Miller said Yiannopoulos is “kind of an outlier in terms of the conservative party” and Baker said “Milo was not missed.”
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