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Remember Mitt Romney?
The 2012 Republican presidential nominee is listed as one of the keynote speakers for this weekend’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “Young Single Adult” (YSA) conference at Arizona State University.
You may recall that Romney’s religion was a fairly big issue in that campaign, as the country’s never had a Mormon president. Political-science professors from Notre Dame, BYU, and Akron later questioned whether Romney’s candidacy was “doomed from the start” due to public perceptions of Mormons.
This weekend, he’ll be one of several speakers at the Arizona “YSA Conference,” something of a meeting of members of the YSA stakes around the Valley.
For those keeping track, the church’s presence on ASU campuses has been growing. In 2007, the Tempe Institute of Religion, an LDS institute, opened right at the campus.
Construction started a few months ago on a new, 24,000-square-foot LDS facility on ASU’s Polytechnic campus in Mesa.
And this weekend, this conference expects a few thousand young people at the Tempe campus. (You don’t have to be a church member to attend, but the website says “LDS standards” still apply.)
Other speakers include ASU President Michael Crow and former ASU and NFL quarterback Danny White, among several others. According to the event website, Romney’s wife, Ann, is speaking, too.
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Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.
