If there is a joke about Sen. John McCain's age -- such as the one about his lack of text-messaging skills, or the one about his never "doing a Google" -- they've heard it.

And if it's a joke about McCain being four times older than them, many Twin Cities teenage and twentysomething Republican supporters have already shrugged it off as they jump aboard his presidential campaign and back other Grand Old Party candidates.

"People are like, 'Hey, he doesn't go on the Internet. He doesn't listen to the kind of music I do,'" said Andrew Foxwell, 23, co-director of the Minnesota branch of Future Leaders for McCain. "My answer thus far has been like, if that's honestly what you're going to decide the election on, that's cool, if that's what's important to you. But I would hope it's something more important, like the economy, gas prices, climate change. I've never had someone come back to me and say, 'It is. The fact that he can't go on the Internet is my biggest issue.'"

Alex Friedman, 18, state chairman of the Minnesota Teenage Republicans, thinks about age, too -- Democratic candidate Barack Obama's.

"Barack Obama was first elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996: I remember that year," Friedman said. "To say that I, as a young person, can remember a time when Barack Obama wasn't even in politics shows how inexperienced he may be."

For the under-30 crowd of Republican supporters, campaign season marks the time to bolster grass-roots campaigns and, in some cases, to make a name in a party thirsty for young energy.

Minnesota College Republican membership will probably double its usually stable 7,000-member roll as students return to campus, but that's typical in an election year. What's changing, young Republicans say, is the number of people their age who self-identify as Republicans, the reasons they do so and their relation to the rest of the party's "big tent."

"I didn't become a Republican because, you know, I liked an elephant better than a donkey," said Cody Holliday, chairman of Bethel University College Republicans.

Holliday's parents were not politically active, and he dabbled in politics in high school. But after attending a "dynamic" Gov. Tim Pawlenty debate, Holliday, now 20, changed his major from math to political science and began thinking about politics as a career.

"I looked at the issues, and I have an opinion on those issues, and it just so happens the Republicans share those same opinions," he said.

Bethany Dorobiala, chairwoman of the Minnesota College Republicans and a political science major at the University of Minnesota, increasingly hears stories like Holliday's. More self-identifying and issues-based (not party-based) young people are finding Republican groups, and she sees many new faces at phoning, door-to-door and parade events for campaigns, she said.

That doesn't mean young people aren't recruiting one another.

"Pizza always works," Dorobiala said.

'It is an older person's party'

Some youth activists try to get politically apathetic peers involved regardless of party.

"There's so much negative image of politics," said McCain campaigner Matt Gallagher, 20. "[Friends think] it's either corrupt or boring."

Or old.

Campaign and party organizers want those in their 20s to be involved, and often call on college-age people to do grass-roots activities, Holliday said.

"But when it comes to figuring out what they're going to do and what our opinions are ... I feel like they don't see us as having enough life experience to know what we're talking about," he said.

So young activists grapple for input on issues where they see a disconnect from elders. Like energy, Dorobiala said. Or gay marriage, or light rail, Foxwell said.

"In our generation, it's really hard to be a staunch conservative," he said. "It is an older person's party."

Still, people in their 20s, especially with new-media skills, can rise quickly.

Friedman has already met McCain twice, as well as President Bush and other GOP heavyweights such as Mitt Romney (three times), Bill Frist and Rudy Giuliani. He says the party has tremendous opportunities for young people.

Foxwell agrees, and, with friends in both parties, said it's easier for young Republicans than Democrats. He's relatively new to politics after growing up thinking he was a Democrat. He said his first step to becoming Republican was to date one.

"I had never heard the other side of the argument. Ever," he said.

In December, he met McCain minutes after arriving in New Hampshire to help his campaign, then rose quickly.

Still a minority

But while youth activism is booming for both parties, young Republicans are aware they're in the minority. The latest Gallup Poll shows that Obama holds a 27-percentage-point lead over McCain among voters ages 18 to 29.

Republican National Convention intern Carrie Zimmerman, 19, didn't have a Republican friend during high school. Holliday has rankled peers with articles in the Collegian newspaper at Bethel. And Gallagher once heard the "Conservative Whisper" at a salon, when his stylist quietly admitted her conservatism.

"It's kind of an underground thing," Gallagher said. "On a lot of college campuses, it's more surprising to come out as a Republican than to come out as gay."

But the minority political role doesn't mean young Republicans can't get along with their liberal friends -- or even girlfriends, in the case of Alex Pouliot, 18, vice chairman of the Minnesota Teenage Republicans.

"My girlfriend is a Barack Obama supporter, 110 percent," Pouliot said. "She's actually the precinct leader."

At such close quarters and under the pressure of the majority, young Republicans need to "think harder and longer about what you believe," Zimmerman said.

"I don't understand why more young people aren't Republicans," Pouliot said. "[But] we're here. ... I think people are going to be in for a shock when we're going to come out to vote."

Tony Gonzalez • 612-673-7415