Some shun hotness. Think Brad Pitt in that ugly wolf beard homeless look he donned while married to Jennifer Aniston. Others apologize for it. Pantene’s 1980s shampoo ad had model Kelly LeBrock demurring, “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” Others wear beauty with ambivalence, like an untucked button-down. George Clooney comes to mind.
Congress’s youngest — and hottest – member Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) falls into none of these categories. Last month the staunch conservative appeared in the fashion pages of GQ. Earlier this year a Huffington Post readers poll rated him hottest freshman in Congress and the year before that, he landed on The Hill’s 50 Most Beautiful People list. But like most beauties, the single 28-year-old wants to at least mention his brains and not dwell on his rock hard abs (the ones TMZ posted of him lounging poolside in red bathing trunks). After the post, he became something of a Capitol Hill heartthrob with women in congressional offices getting schoolgirl crushes.
“I’m flattered people have said those things about me, but it’s not why I ran for office,” said Schock in a phone interview from his Washington D.C. office with District File. “I’d rather have people think my legislative agenda was hot.”
While Observers won’t call Schock’s politics “hot”, they’ll agree he’s poised to win Illinois’s 18th District in 2010. “It looks pretty safe,” said Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Schock doesn’t appear to be losing beauty rest. Consider this: the district hasn’t elected a Democrat in more than 90 years.
Democratic opponents include: Carl Ray, a financial planner and Gulf War Air Force veteran who looks like Dan Lauria (the father in TV’s “The Wonder Years”) and has had two blog posts since he announced in April; and Deirdre “DK” Hirner, 55, the executive director of the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group. She does not reside in the district. He has no primary opponent.
Colleen Callahan a folksy, pixie strawberry blond Democrat who ran against Schock in 2008, declared herself a “farm reporter, mom and businesswoman.” She took not-so-subtle stabs at Schock’s youth, saying, “I’m 57 and my opponent is 27. But that isn’t the problem.” The problem, she says, is Schock wants to sell nuclear weapons to Taiwan.
The brown-eyed congressman is not without flaws. She’s referring to what some deem as Schock’s foreign affairs face splat during his official campaign kickoff speech. He said the United States ought to pressure China and Russia by selling Pershing nuclear missiles to Taiwan. “It was rather outside the box,” remarked Bernie Schoenburg., a political columnist with the Peoria Journal Star. “It was a matter of absurdity.” Schock apologized and acknowledged it as “a mistake” and later, something he said “in jest.”
Despite serious challengers, Schock insists he won’t take his race for granted. “I always said overconfidence will kill anyone,” he said. Maybe so, but at 19 he won his first race to the Peoria School Board. At 22, he was elected to the Illinois State Legislature.
Like a lot of suits in Congress he has a bio that paints him as a hard worker from nearly the moment he came out of the womb. Cue the violins. As a small boy, he worked in the strawberry patches of the family farm and helped sell the berries. Later as a teen, he worked in a gravel pit. At 18 he bought his first piece of real estate.
These days, Schock is focused on what most Republicans are – taking back the House and Senate in 2010. The congressman believes he’s to attract a younger demographic to the Republican Party. If his looks and age help, he says, then all the better.
He even exchanged a moment with First Lady Michelle Obama when in August the pair complimented each other on their physiques. “Those are some arms,” he told her in a White House rope line, to which she responded in kind.
In come the wet blankets. Experts warn Schock must ward off being known for his hotness. “The real problem is if you get caught up in as a self image,” said Redfield. “If you let others define you this way and you define yourself this way, at some point it can establish a reputation of gravitas. It’s not that one can’t be a rock star and a serious politician. You certainly can.”
In other words, just don’t think you’re hot shit because you’re a hot shit lawmaker who landed on the glossy pages of GQ.
For the moment, Schock’s looks don’t seem to be going to his head of thick, dark blond locks that he sometimes whips up into a textured gelled coif. “So far he seems to have handled it well by and visiting the district often staying on message,” said Schoenburg. “My perception is that he’s popular, he’s gotten a lot of attention.”
Schock won’t stop the beauty brigade, especially if it gets people clicking on his website to check him and his legislative priorities out. He recently ran down Pennsylvania Avenue during morning rush hour in a black pinstriped Tommy Hilfiger suit for a GQ fall fashion spread. With no modeling experience (save for the sexy bathing suit shot), Schock said the shoot was fun.
“I had a blast,” he admitted. “[GQ Photographer] Ben Watts is a pro. He really knew how to relax me.
“It’s an honor to be in there. A lot of my constituents get that magazine. So what it results in are a lot of people seeing the profile and photos and checking out who this guy is.”
Really. Fashionistas in Peoria, Ill.?
“Peoria isn’t a Chicago, but we’ve got our symphony and ballet and college basketball team and gambling casino,” Schock said, defending the alleged sophistication of his constituency. “They know how to dress, absolutely.”
Schock says he dressed well even before the GQ shoot. He has clothing by Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Club Monaco and Brooks Brothers in his closet. “You know, I like variety,” he said. “I like to think that if I’m wearing a suit and tie everyday, at my age I can have a little fun with it.”
Age and a youthful air are integral to his political personality. He knows he wasn’t the first congressman to be labeled “youngest in Congress” – he points to Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), who, at 33, still gets comparisons to the Ron Howard character, “Opie” from “The Andy Griffith Show”, and says the two are tight. He says GOP members look to him to speak to their school groups.
Schock won’t insult his off-the-wrack-wearing colleagues, or discredit their pedestrian wardrobes.
“Oh, I’m not going to go down that road,” he said, laughing. “I’m sure you know, that they all represent their districts well.”
Schock rides the fence on another GOP beauty: former Alaskan Gov. and Vice Presidential running mate to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Sarah Palin.
He counts her neither in nor out for a 2012 White House run.
“I don’t have a favorite,” he said. “I believe the cream will rise to the top. “
And is Palin the cream?
“I’m not judging her yet because it’s a long way off,” he said swiftly. “I don’t think she should be ruled out. I don’t think anybody should suggest she’s the only candidate who can run.”
Life isn’t all GQ photo shoots and schoolgirl crushes for Schock.
Controversy recently swirled after he invited conservative D.C. journalist Fred Barnes, editor of the right-wing magazine, The Weekly Standard, to appear at a closed-to-the-press fundraiser in Springfield, Ill. Schoenburg, the columnist, said Barnes told him he wasn’t endorsing the congressman. “It was questionable in the first place if a Washington D.C. journalist should be attending an event that turned out to be a fundraiser,” Bernie said.
Schock recently stepped up his foreign policy by traveling to Honduras on a Co-del of just four Hill lawmakers that included Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). The mission was to check that the leader was ousted properly. To go, Schock canceled an appearance at a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. He was to throw out the first ball of the seventh inning.
Schock’s political future within the party isn’t written on the wall, though Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), who last occupied the seat, has called him a “rising star.” LaHood was known for contradicting President Bush.
Analysts say Schock must carve his own path and not go overboard on his physical attractiveness.
“At some point if he wants to move up or within the Republican caucus or if he has ambitions for higher statewide office, if he wants people to take him seriously, he needs to build credibility on policy side,” Redmond said. “Building a buzz is fine in getting noticed. The trick then is to put substance behind it.”
Fashion spreads aside, Schock says people in and around Peoria know him well. “When you spend 2 ½ million on a race for Congress, you get a decent name ID,” he said.
Despite an obvious lack of wrinkles, Schock said he’s been alive long enough to know looks aren’t everything.
Oh, but humor us. What famous actresses does he find attractive? Who’s his type?
Before he names names, he prefaces that, “Looks are important, but personalities are more important.”
He picks two: Penelope Cruz and Cindy Crawford. “If you’re going from pure looks, I’m a fan of Penelope Cruz,” he said. “I think she’s attractive. She has a fun personality from what I can tell. I think Cindy Crawford is someone who is beautiful.”
Schock laughs. “She has aged well.”
When I ask if he considers himself beautiful he laughs and replies, “Well what kind of a question is that?
“I roll with all of it,” he said of the recent media blitz centered on his beauty. “There are worse things they could be saying about me in Washington. The media is one thing you can’t control in this business.”
Schock tweets. But not like some over-tweeting congressional bores. “I’m a tweeter,” he says enthusiastically. But he says he knows when to say when. “Oh, no. I like to say something when I have something to say. I don’t want to tweet just to be tweeting.”
On Facebook he’s a bit of a Friend whore and doesn’t decline anyone as a Facebook Friend. “Yeah, anybody that wants to be, we welcome to the Schock fan page,” he said, adding that his friend count is well into the thousands.
The congressman speaks of marriage but does not seem in a rush.
“To be married to someone in public life requires a considerable amount of sacrifice,” he said. “I have enormous respect for my colleagues’ spouses and children for the sacrifices they make… If and when I were to have a relationship with someone and get married down the road, that is probably the first issue that would have to be addressed, accepted and so on.
“Some may think it’s glamorous,” he says of congressional life. “I’m not foolish enough to [think that].”
Thankfully he doesn’t act annoyed by his own beauty, as though it gets in the way of an otherwise normal existence.
“I didn’t find it quite offensive,” Schock said of TMZ’s red bathing suit picture pinged all over the country. “I’m a human being. I go to pools. I go to beaches. It’s incentive to stay in shape.”
Schock hints he may be slacking on morning workouts as his schedule tightens. The red bathing suit shot, he said, is two years old and something found on MySpace “thanks to TMZ’s crackpot research team.” So the unfortunate possibility exists that Schock’s six-pack has fallen by the wayside.
He admits as much.
“I do my best,” he said of workouts, adding that he “tries” not to miss them. “The work schedule is brutal.”
Sigh.
