Tonight, GOP chairman Michael Steele performed a swan song of sorts in front of a group of young Republicans.

At Art and Soul, a restaurant near Capitol Hill, the Young Republican National Federation hosted an hour-long debate between the five contenders for chairman of the Republican National Committee. The challengers hewed closely to their talking points, reciting their résumés, and emphasizing their conservatism. To play to the younger crowd, they reminisced about their college days and argued that they were still young at heart.

“I like to consider myself a young Republican,” said Ann Wagner. “I’m only 48.”

But Steele made an impassioned plea to the young activists to reshape the party. “This is not your momma’s and your daddy’s party anymore,” he told them. “It’s yours.” He attributed much of the party’s recent gains in the midterm elections to their efforts. “Don’t let anyone diminish what you brought to this table,” he insisted.

Comparing party veterans’ skepticism of younger voters to recent criticism of his candidacy, Steele said he disliked a party that played it safe: “You can’t be a national chairman [they told me]; I’m glad I didn’t listen to them. And so as you go forward, you’ve got to start looking at this from a different set of lenses and see what you can contribute and don’t let anyone tell you it’s not worth your effort, that you will never be, that you can never do.”

He also defended some of his decisions as chairman. Citing the media’s criticism of his decision to pour money into Scott Brown’s run for Senate in 2009, Steele rhetorically asked, “Aren’t you glad I did?” It’s about taking risks, he concluded. “It’s about standing before your peers and looking them in the eye and saying I did it this way because I believe it [will] work. That’s what we do. That’s what we’re going to do together over the next two years,” he said.