While the man at the top of the Republican ticket looks old, the audience and speakers at the Republican National Convention feel remarkably young. In the valuable final minutes of the prime-time hour Wednesday, the party that is rarely considered cool and youthful made a play for America’s college students and their parents. Seven young fraternity brothers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were welcomed as heroes, because they marched to the middle of campus in April to raise the American flag.

It was a tense time on campus. The weather had turned hot and humid. Students were ramping up for exams. Conflict had been brewing for months. Palestinian and Muslim students said they were being surveilled and attacked. Jewish students felt unheard and scared. Ultimately, the pro-Palestinian encampment and protest was mild compared with those at other universities. But UNC Chapel Hill prides itself on benign Southern gentility. Any amount of direct action is a shock to the community’s system.

In response, the campus’s not-so-silent conservative minority took the opportunity to make a MAGA statement. They say they stoically defended and raised the American flag after pro-Palestinian protesters had taken it down. Some students and faculty members said they solicited conflict with protesters.

What is clear is the fraternity members became overnight conservative heroes. A GoFundMe campaign in their honor raised more than a half-million dollars. (The organizers have said the money will be used to throw a party worthy “of the boat-shoed Broleteriat who did their country proud.”) Grateful conservatives have crowned them the antidote to collegiate wokeness; it is very easy to imagine moderates and silent conservatives seeing a future in these clean-cut college boys from a Southern university.

The eight fraternity members entered the stage Wednesday after doing a brief media interview with conservative journalists on the convention floor. They were the picture of collegiate conservatism: blue blazers, red ties, tan khakis. A line of them cradled the American flag as a video montage heralded them as the future of America.

Their message was only a few minutes long, but their presence spoke volumes. The Republican attack on higher education has successfully painted college students as radical, slovenly leftists who want a free ride. This lineup of well-dressed young men (with a smattering of racial diversity even!) broadcast a new dawn for young Republicans. They are proud. Their parents can be proud. And, they are on message.

The Grand Old Party looked awfully youthful Wednesday night. As the Democratic Party seems to cast out its youngest, most energetic left-wing flank, the Republicans are calling their young firebrands home. Donald Trump’s Republican Party has a place for stoic frat bros, young and old. As convention speakers said over and over again, this party can reconcile the imperfect messenger with its winning message. It remains to be seen if the Democrats will be able to say the same.

Tressie McMillan Cottom writes for the New York Times.

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