Source:
Mother Jones<snip>
Over the last week of the campaign, nearly six-dozen home-schooled students, some flown in from out of state, joined the Bachmann campaign, knocking on doors, sending out mailers, and making thousands of phone calls. The kids, all between the ages of 12 and 19, were members of GenJ Student Action Team, part of a national organization called Generation Joshua, which trains home-schooled students to become political activists. When the votes were counted, Bachmann held on to her seat in a squeaker—and she credited her child army with pushing her over to the top.
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Now, as Bachmann sets her sights on the Republican presidential nomination, that same youth brigade could be her secret weapon. Over the last decade, Bachmann, who home-schooled her five biological children, has developed strong ties to state and national home-school organizations. In March, she joined fellow presidential candidates Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and businessman Herman Cain at a conference organized by the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators (NICHE) in Des Moines. And in 2009, she addressed Generation Joshua's national iGovern conference in Washington, DC.
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In courting home-schoolers, Bachmann isn't simply sticking with her principles; she's following the same blueprint that propelled former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to a surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses three years ago. Huckabee, whose 2008 campaign was guided by Bachmann's top strategist Ed Rollins, used the state's home-school network as a base of support at a time when he was cash-strapped and mostly unknown.
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Farris is the former president of Patrick Henry College, the Virginia institution that aspires to be the "Evangelical Ivy," preparing the nation's brightest home-schooled students (whom the school is geared toward) for careers in public service. Through the efforts of Farris and others, home-schoolers have attained levels of political influence disproportionate to their small numbers. A 2003 study (PDF) funded by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) suggested that home-schooled 18- to 24-year-olds are 14 times more likely to have worked for a political campaign and more than three times as likely to have voted as non-home-schooled students.
Read more:
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/michele-bachmann-home-school-fundraising:scared: