Emily Lofgren

As a freshman in college in 2010, Emily Lofgren had the honor of being elected to the Iowa GOP state party’s governing board. At the age of 19, Lofgren was the party’s youngest state central committee member, and likely the youngest official ever.

That year, Lofgren also served as the campaign manager for her father’s successful state representative campaign. With Emily’s help, her father, Mark Lofgren (R-IA), beat a three-term Democratic incumbent by a whopping 16 points.

Lofgren went on to serve as President of the Drake College Republicans, became the founding president for Drake’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI) chapter and the state secretary and political director for the Iowa College Republicans before graduating from Drake University in May. She did all this in just three years. She will be teaching at Hebei Normal University for Nationalities in Chengde, China this August.

Lofgren said that the resolve of the founders is a large part of the reason she became involved in politics.

“It never ceases to amaze me how many people my age have no idea what goes on in the government systems that in turn affect their daily lives,” she said.

Lofgren said that in order to convince young people to join the conservative movement, conservatives need to focus on the issues they can get young people to agree on.

“If you can work together to advocate for a few causes that you agree about, that is much more productive than focusing on what you do not have in common.“