But two floors below the Conservative Political Action Conference's cavernous ballroom, there's an entirely different show. <\/p>\n
An eclectic -- and sometimes bewildering -- mix of more than 120 vendors are peddling everything from handbags and advanced degrees to atheism and books. It's a mix of unvarnished capitalism and old school political recruiting. <\/p>\n
But perhaps most importantly, the bazaar is a place where conservatives can capture the next generation. <\/p>\n
READ: CPAC 2015 coverage <\/p>\n
\"Look at the kids,\" said Ami Francisco, who was working the Young Republican National Federation booth. \"There are so many young people. There are high school kids here. There are college kids here and this is the future of our party.\" <\/p>\n
Francisco said the Young Republican's goal is to create a home for graduating college students through the age of 40, which she emphasized was important to the growth of the Republican Party, <\/p>\n
\"We want to get them engaged, keep them engaged right from high school to college and into the Young Republicans so they are not dropping off,\" she said. <\/p>\n
CPAC is the logical recruiting ground to do that. At least 56% of the roughly 9,000 people who registered for the conference this year were of college age, according to organizers. <\/p>\n
The cost of renting a piece of this valuable real estate to make your conservative pitch: $4,000. <\/p>\n
Of all the conservative gatherings that occur each year, Annette Pettyjohn, director of admissions for Liberty University School of Law, described CPAC as \"the best one for me to recruit students.\" <\/p>\n
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Read more here:<\/p>\n
For sale: handbags and conservative ideology<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" But two floors below the Conservative Political Action Conference's cavernous ballroom, there's an entirely different show. Continue reading