Ladarius Beal is
a rarity on the South Side of Chicago. He is a young
Republican, a suit-and-tie-wearing island of conservatism in
a sea of Democrats, many of them supporters of
presidential candidate Barack Obama, who lives nearby.
The 17-year-old's
top political issues have their roots in his
evangelical Christian faith: He adamantly opposes abortion
and believes in marriage as a union between only ''one
man and one woman.'' And one day, he hopes to vote for
Mike Huckabee, the Baptist preacher and former
Arkansas governor who dropped out of the presidential race
when John McCain secured the GOP nomination but vowed
to build upon his conservative voting base.
''He does not let
anybody make him feel ashamed about what he believes.
And that's how I am,'' says Beal, a junior at Chicago's
Julian High School, where he's known as the
''preacher'' for regularly riling up fellow students
with his views.
He is a young
black man living amid the ''Obama-mania'' that has
overtaken not just his predominantly black high school, but
college campuses across the country. He is among the
up-and-coming Republicans who stand proudly against
the tide, even if they are in a distinct minority.
An Associated
Press analysis found that a notable number of young
Republicans, like Beal, have conservative leanings. The
analysis of exit poll data from 2008 presidential
primaries found that Republican voters younger than
age 30 tended to be more conservative than their elders:
- A third
of those young Republicans oppose abortion in all
circumstances, compared with 23% of Republicans age 30 and
older.
- They
also were 10 percentage points more likely to say the top
quality in a candidate is that he or she ''shares my
values.'' Older Republicans were more likely to cite
experience.
- And
young Republicans were nine percentage points more likely
than older Republicans to vote for Huckabee.
Overall, the
analysis found that those in the 18- to 24-year-old
Republican bracket were the most conservative young voters.
Tarah Goulding, a
20-year-old senior at the University of Texas, is among
them. She won't say which candidate she voted for in the
Texas Republican primary, but says she's found things
to like about Huckabee, Ron Paul, and McCain.
''As a young
person who wants to admire a president as a moral leader, I
respect that Senator McCain doesn't just tell people what
they want to hear,'' says Goulding, who's been an
active Republican since age 14 and is now a precinct
leader in her county.
That attitude
makes her unusual among her college peers, says political
science professor Michael McDonald, who thinks McCain's
support of the Iraq War will make it difficult for him
to appeal to young people's trademark sense of
idealism.
''Talking about
finishing the job -- these sorts of things are not going
to sit well with young people,'' McDonald says, noting the
strong antiwar sentiment on campuses, including his
own George Mason University.
In general, he
and others say it is a difficult time for Republicans to
try to reach out to young voters -- so some wonder how much
McCain will try.
Since the early
1990s researchers at the Pew Research Center for the
People and the Press have found that Republican ranks --
young people included -- are declining. Of 18- to
29-year-old registered voters who took part in Pew
polls, about a third identified as Republican in 1992,
compared with about a quarter in recent years.
Meanwhile, the
percentage of young people in that bracket who identified
as Democrats has risen from 29% to 34% in that same time
frame.
Researchers at
Harvard's Institute of Politics say they saw a slight
increase in young people who identified as Republican after
the September 11 terrorist attacks, but also have seen
that support dissipate.
Many young
Republicans don't dispute their minority status.
''The stories you
hear about how college students are Obama maniacs are
absolutely accurate,'' says Ellen Dargie, a 19-year-old
sophomore who heads a Republican student group at
Georgetown University. ''But I think people really
underestimate Republican youth.''
She also thinks
some young Democrats will switch allegiance after college
-- ''as people grow older and see where their money is going
and they start living with some of these policies.''
''I think it's
just a matter of time,'' she says.
That's what
happened to Mike Murphy, a 27-year-old information
technology technician in suburban Chicago. He leaned
Democratic in high school, but is now a conservative
Republican.
''It really made
me mad that the government felt the need to take so much
of my hard-earned money,'' Murphy says. Besides a wish for
lower taxes, he counts national security and a tough
immigration policy among his biggest priorities.
''I am not like
any of these Hollywood Michael Moore types from the
Democratic Party,'' he says.
Still others
believe hope for luring young Republican recruits will come
with more inclusiveness.
''Republicans can
often be stereotyped as rich, white, old men. But that
is not the Republican party of today,'' says Brendan
Kownacki, a 22-year-old Republican who is a media
strategist and consultant in Washington, D.C.
''There can be
pro-choice Republicans, pro-environment Republicans,
fiscal moderates, fiscal conservatives, or even gay
Republicans.''
Allen Otto, a
20-year-old Republican who is gay, agrees. He supports
same-sex marriage, but isn't too fussed about his party's
stance against it.
''There are many,
many more issues in the political arena that mean a lot
more to this country than gay marriage,'' says Otto, a
student at Trinity University in San Antonio. A
self-described conservative, he's supporting McCain.
Back in Chicago,
however, Beal says he's just as glad he won't be old
enough to vote in November. He'd rather have a chance to
vote for Huckabee in 2012.
Though young
black people are very unlikely to identify as Republican,
according to the AP analysis, Beal seems almost
inspired by his loner status, sharing his views with
his Democratic peers -- whether they want to hear them
or not.
''Believe me,''
says social studies teacher Gwen Dunbar, ''everywhere
Ladarius goes, he's remembered.'' (Martha Irvine, AP)
