The Right Stuff

IN 2001, STEPHEN MILLER WAS A 16-year-old student at Santa Monica High School near the beach in Southern California when the 9/11 attacks kicked his patriotism into overdrive. Upset that students weren’t saying the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms, the future presidential confidante called into a radio show hosted by Larry Elder, a prominent Black conservative, to complain.

“California code required schools to cite the pledge,” Elder told Newsweek while recalling the phone call from Miller. “He demanded that the school abide by the code and created quite a stir. He was bright, funny and passionate.”

So much so that Elder took calls on air from Miller 69 times as a high schooler, and the teenager caught the attention of major conservative figures, such as Stephen Bannon, the late Andrew Breitbart and best-selling author-activist David Horowitz. Miller made waves again when he invited the latter to speak at his high school. When administrators balked, Miller took his case to the airwaves—on The Larry Elder Show—until the school cried uncle and allowed Horowitz to speak.

Around that same time, 17-year-old Ben Shapiro was a student at UCLA, having graduated from high school two years early, and the conservative teenager was already the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the country.

Miller, of course, pursued a career in politics, including stints as press secretary for Representative Michele Bachmann and Senator Jeff Sessions before becoming, at age 31, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump. Shapiro meanwhile, wrote two books before age 21 and in 2015 founded his own media company, The Daily Wire. Today, he boasts 13.8 million followers across Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

This brief history lesson suggests that, when it comes to modern-day conservatives, there are clues at a young age as to whom the movement’s next influencers, akin to Shapiro or Miller, might be. With this in mind, Newsweek has identified its top 12 up-and-comers who should excite the right and make liberals very nervous, especially ahead of a contentious presidential race where Democrats are relying on young voters to put their candidate, Joe Biden, over the top.

They’re younger and far less known than, say, 28-year-old Tomi Lahren (followed by 1.6 million people on Twitter); 31-year-old Candace Owens (2.5 million Twitter followers); 33-year-old Steven Crowder (4.7 million YouTube subscribers); or 25-year-old Madison Cawthorn, the paralyzed congressional candidate in North Carolina who delivered an inspiring speech at the Republican