Over the past two years, membership in the Lincoln Club of San Diego has climbed by 300 percent. That’s how long Chris Niemeyer, 25, has been the club’s executive director. Niemeyer says the jump from 113 to 340 members was the result of a change in focus to education and the economy, leaving social issues out. “These are issues that resonate,” Niemeyer says. “When we focused on that, we saw people coming out of the woodwork to join.”

Niemeyer, who holds a bachelor’s degree in social science from Point Loma Nazarene University, describes the Lincoln Club as a political and business organization. Although it is not connected to the Republican Party, the club usually aligns itself with GOP platforms and candidates and is heavily involved in raising money. Last year, the club raised about $600,000 for five or six county candidates. Now it wants to support candidates through independent expenditures — money that does not go directly to the candidate but is spent on his or her behalf.

Niemeyer, an adviser to college Republicans at Point Loma Nazarene and a member of the Republican Party at the local and state level, interned at the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. While still in college, he worked out of April Boling’s office. Boling, the club’s treasurer, introduced him to its operation. When Scott Barnett left the taxpayers association to become executive director of the Lincoln Club, he brought Niemeyer with him as a policy assistant. And when Barnett left the club, its board offered his job to Niemeyer.

During Niemeyer’ last year of college, He studied, worked at the Lincoln Club almost full-time, and met and married his wife, Alicia.

Although Niemeyer enjoys the political work, he has no ambition for elective office. “I’ll never run for anything but my health,” he says. “That doesn’t motivate me. I enjoy the background work of politics. I like to be involved at the macro level.”