CPAC 2013

This past weekend, I attended the annual CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) at the National Harbor, a large development in Maryland just outside of the DC border. I was initially hesitant on going, but my friend had a spare ticket, so I decided to tag along. For those unfamiliar with the conference, CPAC is an annual meeting of conservative activists, organizations, speakers, and journalists. Last year, it attracted about 10,000 attendees; in recent years, more than half of these attendees have been college-aged.

The festivities started Wednesday night at an event downtown in the Farragut North neighborhood where I met friends, co-workers, and congressmen Amash (R-MI) and Massie (R-KY), two congressmen who lead with a largely libertarian agenda in the House. Here’s a photo of myself with my friend and the two congressmen.

At the end of the night, I got convinced into going to CPAC the next morning, grabbed my friends spare ticket, and woke up early the next morning to head to the conference.

The first event I attended at CPAC was a breakfast event with Virginian candidate for Governor Ken Cuccinelli. Cuccinelli is the current Attorney General for VA and is running unopposed on the Republican ticket for Governor.

After that event, I made my way into the main part of the conference where the main speaking floor was. On my way there, I got to catch a glance of Newt Gingrich giving a radio interview.

Thursday afternoon, in the main ballroom, Senator Paul (R-KY) was making his address. In my opinion, his address had the most energy and received the highest amount of crowd enthusiasm. Representing a more libertarian set of ideologies in the party, Paul made his address in the wake of his recent media wave he got after his thirteen hour filibuster and was met with a lot of excitement from the college-aged crowd. Many attendees had signs that read “Stand With Rand” and donned stickers on their jacket lapels that said the same thing. On my way out, I was stopped by a reporter from the Washington Examiner for a quick interview.

Me doing an interview with the Washington Examiner

Here’s a funny picture that I took of a water bottle, poking fun at Rubio’s water bottle fiasco, that an organization was giving out in the exhibit hall

My favorite event of the entire conference was Thursday evening. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a libertarian think-tank in the District, held a panel called “Rainbow on the Right.” One of my favorite policy organizations in the district is GOProud; to borrow from their website, GOProud is a “national organization of gay and straight Americans who seek to promote freedom by supporting free markets, limited government, and a respect for individual rights.” They sponsored the 2010 CPAC conference but were unfortunately barred from doing so since then after other big donors spoke out against the organization. CEI, however, invited their executive director, Jimmy LaSalvia, to speak on the panel. The panel very quickly became standing room only and was one of the most heavily attended panels in CPAC, despite CPAC itself barring GOProud from holding its own sessions or sponsoring the event. LaSalvia received a standing ovation, showing support for GOProud and changing ideas in the movement. After the event, the DC Libertarian Party and I issued a press release on the event and scolded CPAC for their discrimination.

Jimmy LaSalvia addresses the crowd

The next morning, on Friday, I started my day off by briefly dropping into Santorum’s address to the crowd. After listening for a minute and snapping a few pictures, I left.

I returned to the ballroom later to see Romney’s address. Romney poked fun at himself and his campaign and spoke on ideas that became the theme of the entire conference– that the Republican Party, coming off of two consecutive presidential election defeats, is at a crossroads and needs to examine the possibility of change.

Of course no conference is complete without after parties, and much to my surprise, CPAC had these too. I don’t think attending a CPAC after party will be on my short-list for things to do on a Friday night ever again, but it was entertaining.