NEW: CPAC is missing students and its legendary party scene. Republicans are concerned the low-energy event reflects the GOP's standing with young voters in a post-Trump world. businessinsider.com/cpac-college-s… by @tomlobianco ($) in @thisisinsider
ORLANDO, Florida — There's a common refrain among Republicans and conservatives roaming the halls of this year's Conservative Political Action Conference: "Where are all the students?"
The lack of eager right-leaning teenagers and 20-somethings collecting free schwag and chugging beers is one of the most glaring and obvious contrasts from the annual conservative conferences held during the before times in and around Washington DC.
But in this pandemic wasteland of 2021, where even CPAC has decamped to a popular family hotel a short 20-minute drive from Disney World, it's the lack of young people that is getting noticed.
"That's the thing I miss the most, without any question," Roger Stone, the infamous Donald Trump consigliere, told Insider on Saturday.
This year, the lack of young conservatives is being chalked up to the painfully obvious COVID-19 restrictions that have upended everything from school to professional sports. Conference organizers picked Orlando over DC because of the Sunshine State's lax pandemic rules.
But moving the event to central FLA also has meant less energy in the room. Chalk it up in no small part to the typical reservoir of Capitol Hill GOP interns & aspiring young politicos who are no longer just a Metro or Uber ride away from the Super Bowl of conservative events.
Recognizing those MIA students, longtime conservatives in town for CPAC can't help but observe the real-life concern that Republicans are losing a new generation of activists and supporters.
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