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The Conservative Political Action Conference has been a Washington fixture for decades, but as it's grown older, it's also added more features for young people. College-age youth come to Washington to talk politics and policy, but they're also interested in, well, each other. So NPR's Teresa Tomassoni reports that this year's agenda included a session on dating for conservative singles.
TERESA TOMASSONI, BYLINE: Forty-three-year-old Wayne Elise is a conservative and a real life dating guru, otherwise known as the Libertarian Hitch.
WAYNE ELISE: Conservative people have a hard time hooking up. They have a hard time meeting people sometimes because they're way too serious.
TOMASSONI: Have a sense of humor, Elise advises his audience. Be yourself and avoid being mundane - tips that could benefit anyone, regardless of their politics. But then, maybe that's the point. John Hawkins blogs for Right Wing News, and he invited Elise to the conference.
JOHN HAWKINS: You know, it's not all that different. Conservative dating, I mean, they're still people.
TOMASSONI: They still have questions about sex and how to approach someone you're attracted to, and Elise is full of answers. Learn how to flirt, he tells the relatively few women in his audience. And guys, be more sexual.
ELISE: That doesn't mean you say like, hey, you want to have sex? But it does mean, like, hey, tell a girl why you find her attractive.
TOMASSONI: And don't be afraid to look outside your own political circles for a partner.
ELISE: You know, people mostly stick to their own group, and that's a shame.
TOMASSONI: CPAC attendee Jacqueline Otto agrees, but only up to a point.
JACQUELINE OTTO: What wouldn't work is if you're a conservative and the other person just doesn't care. The other person doesn't value what it means for you to be a conservative.
TOMASSONI: What's important, says John Hawkins, is that there's room for amicable debate.
HAWKINS: It has to be the sort of thing where they're OK with you thinking Al Gore's a moron, and you're OK with him not liking Sarah Palin.
TOMASSONI: And you need to enjoy spending time doing other nonpolitical things together. Elise suggests strolling through downtown Manhattan taking Polaroid pictures of each other. But 31-year-old Ryan Horn had another idea: a gun range. He says shooting some rounds with his girlfriend was a major part of his wooing process.
RYAN HORN: That's what worked on our second date, and I think it will work on the fourth and fifth.
TOMASSONI: And Horn says that's where they'll be spending Valentine's Day, too. Teresa Tomassoni, NPR News.
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