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 He is not alone. The 26-year-old aspiring restaurateur and
chairman of the party's West Los Angeles central committee is one of
a raft of ethnically diverse young libertarians who hold seats in
L.A. County’s huge GOP apparatus, injecting youthful energy into its
operations at a time when the state’s Republican Party is nearly
moribund.
After winning control the executive board of the Los Angeles County
Republican Party in December 2012, the “Liberty Kids,” as they call
themselves, are seeing the fruits of their activism. This year one
of their own is running as the Republican nominee for Congress from
the San Gabriel Valley, with Zendehnam serving as policy adviser.
The Liberty Kids are challenging the party's social conservatives
and are drawing the attention of Democrats, who see liberal youth as
part of their base. And in what could be a harbinger for the GOP,
they have begun campaigning in other states, aiming to increase
their influence beyond California.
"I want you to look around the room," Zendehnam said at a meeting
last week, "because this is what the face of the Republican Party is
going to look like."
The Liberty Kids hold four of seven seats on the local party's
governing board and dozens of spots on its 200-person central
committee, representing a county that is home to 10 million people.
Raised during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and excited by the
non-interventionist philosophy of Ron Paul, the former Texas
congressman and presidential contender, many registered as
Republicans to vote for Paul in the 2008 and 2012 presidential
primaries and then stayed on in the party.
The group is making its presence felt as the GOP struggles to
reinvent itself in California, where Republicans make up 29 percent
of registered voters and Democrats control both houses of the
legislature and all statewide offices.
"The party is a little bit out of touch, and they need a fresh view
of things," said Calvin Lee, 27, whose strategy helped spur the Los
Angeles board takeover after the party's losses in the 2012
elections.
'THEY CURSE AT US'
Despite personal politics that might seem more in tune with
Democrats - world peace, ending the war on drugs and addressing
global warming top the list of concerns for many - these millennials
say they are more comfortable with Republicans' emphasis on freedom
than Democrats' penchant for regulation.
"I used to be very liberal," said Carey Wedler, 25, at a recent
meeting of the group. But she sees government as oppressive,
authoritarian and warmongering, and says Republicans are the ones
skeptical of government. "Everything the government does is backed
up with a gun."
The newcomers have clashed with Tea Party libertarians, who skew
more conservative on social issues. Many Tea Partiers bristle at the
newcomers' views on abortion and immigration, and their deep
distrust of the National Security Agency.
"They curse at us," Zendehnam said.
Los Angeles County Republican Chairman Mark Vafiades, himself nearly
defeated by a Liberty Kid candidate for the chairmanship, said he
tries to avoid conflict, instead focusing on supporting Republican
candidates, a strategy aimed at integrating the youthful members and
harnessing their energy.
"The party infighting isn't so much about the local issues - it's
about the national issues," he said. "The Liberty Caucus is
anti-military, and we have a lot in the Republican Party who are
national security conservatives."
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Some Liberty members plan to propose a resolution declaring concern
for war victims in Gaza at the next caucus meeting, which Vafiades
said would run counter to the traditional Republican position on the
Middle East. Democratic strategist Steve Maviglio, who advises
candidates and elected officials, said the young libertarians are
evidence of a "civil war" within the Republican Party, as moderates,
Tea Party adherents, neoconservatives and now libertarians vie for
influence.
But Vafiades said the Liberty group has brought youth and diversity
to the party, and energy that has helped with campaigns.
"When I took over in 2012 the party was in debt, we had no paid
staff, and the office was closed," he said. "We were a
non-functioning party."
INTO THE FOLD
The Republican Party does not keep figures on how many libertarians
have joined, according to Republican National Committee spokesman
Raffi Williams. But Matt Nye, national chairman of the Republican
Liberty Caucus, said his mailing list increased by half, to 30,000,
during Paul's 2008 campaign.
"You see a lot more libertarians coming into the fold nationally in
the Republican Party," Williams said. "It's our job to make them
feel welcome."
Libertarians, many of them young, have recently sought spots on
local party boards in Minnesota, Louisiana, Maine, Washington and
Idaho, according to supporters and local media reports. But neither
the newcomers nor the national party could pinpoint specific
victories. In Iowa, Republicans recently voted libertarians off the
statewide party board.
In Los Angeles, the group’s efforts paid off with the nomination of
Arturo Alas, the son of Democrats who immigrated from El Salvador,
for Congress in the blue-collar suburban area where he grew up.
Alas, 33, recently won the support of mainstream Republicans,
including Senate GOP leader Bob Huff.
Many hope to nominate Paul's son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, for
president in 2016. But it will be difficult for them to push their
liberal social agenda across the Republican Party, said University
of Georgia political scientist Keith Poole.
"You can't influence a political party unless you start electing
members of state legislatures and members of Congress. That’s the
real test," he said.
(This story has been refiled to remove comma in second paragraph.)
(Editing by Dina Kyriakidou Contini and Douglas Royalty)
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