BOONE, Iowa — At a town hall meeting in a small library here, Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul said he hasn’t quite figured out why many of his most loyal supporters are young, despite that he is in his seventies.
“You know, I’ve been asking that question myself for a long, long time,” he said to a crowd of about 100 people who crammed into a small room to hear the presidential candidate speak, many of whom chuckled at his answer.
Paul said, “It used to be that parents would drag high school kids to my office and say, ‘You know, we’re having a civics lesson today. This is your congressman.'”
“But now, the young people drive their parents to my office and the parents admit it and say, ‘He got me interested in what you’re doing.'”
“That excites me when I hear that,” Paul added.
Paul, who is registering in second place in Iowa according to the latest Des Moines Register poll, said he’s not sure he knows “the exact answer” for why this is the case.
“I’d like to think — I talk a lot about freedom. Freedom is a young idea. It’s only been tested in the history of the world for short periods of time … Young people are more open to new ideas than some of us, you know, that get stuck in our old-fashioned ways,” Paul said. (RELATED: Full coverage of Ron Paul)
When Paul finished speaking, a young male yelled out, “It helps that you were on Jon Stewart,” referencing Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.
“Pardon me,” Paul said to the young man.
“It helps you were on Jon Stewart,” he repeated.
“Yeah,” Paul said, “you can get some information there.”