David McIntosh, '83, on Leading the Club for Growth

Were your conservative political ideals also formed around that time?

Let me tell you about the journey there, because it didn’t start that way. I went to college and really put that newfound faith on the shelf. My freshman year I went to church most of the time, but by my sophomore year I was partying, drinking to go to the football games, and having a fun time.

I thank God for not giving up on me because He pursued me. My political beliefs were pretty leftist. I was part of a progressive party and the debating groups at Yale. I had an … acquaintance there who came up to me and said, “Well, David, what do you believe in?” I said, “Well, I believe in free speech.” She said, “What about your faith?” I said, “I’m a Christian,” because I kept the label, and a couple of other things. She looked at me and said, “You’re not a liberal, you’re a conservative.” I said, “Really?” Because at that time, the label I had was a liberal. I said, “Well, let me think about that.”

I spent the summer thinking, what do I really believe in, reaching back to that life in Kendallville and the things that were important to me. That started a couple-year evolution. I then went to law school and had two great professors. Antonin Scalia was a professor there … and Richard Epstein, who’s a famous professor. I took courses from them that really made me think, and I realized after my first year of law school, I am a conservative, a constitutional conservative. Freedom is the thing I value most in political, public life, and I want to live my life to promote that.