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Draft:College Republicans of America

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  • Comment: The Forbes piece aside, the sources don't meet the WP:ORG standard, and that one source alone isn't enough to establish notability. DoubleGrazing (talk) 06:33, 8 September 2024 (UTC)
  • Comment: Twitter and Instagram are not reliable sources. The Post Millennial and Human Events are not considered reliable because of strong bias and a history of innaccurate reporting (see WP:RS/P#The Post Millennial and WP:RS/P#Human Events). Please fix this sourcing issues. C F A 💬 15:05, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
  • Comment: Need to remove the primary sources. Stuartyeates (talk) 06:37, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

College Republicans of America
PresidentWill Donahue[citation needed]
Vice PresidentJustin Holtsnider[citation needed]
Executive Vice PresidentWilliam Blathras[citation needed]
Founded2023
HeadquartersTustin, CA[citation needed]
IdeologyConservatism
Websitewww.uscollegegop.com

The College Republicans of America (CRA) is a national organization for organizing and supporting College Republicans - college, university, and students in other forms of higher education who support the Republican Party in the United States.[1] The organization's stated focus is recruiting, organizing, and training young activists for the Republican Party and preparing those young activists for politically-aligned work.[2][3]

Following the decline of the College Republican National Committee (CRNC), the CRA was established in order to "create a new coalition" of College Republicans from the "disrepair" of the CRNC. Since their establishment, the CRA has become the largest national College Republicans organization, comprising around 130 active chapters and nine state federations.[4] Notable state federations include the California College Republicans, the New York Federation of College Republicans, and the Wisconsin Federation of College Republicans.

The CRA has ties to Turning Point Action, Turning Point USA's "political advocacy arm" 501(c)4 affiliate, with Tyler Bowyer, the COO of Turning Point Action, serving on the CRA's Board of Directors.[5]

History

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Following the New York Federation of College Republican's "dossier" about alleged financial misconduct and crimes by the CRNC, several College Republican state federations disaffiliated from the CRNC.[6] Following this event and various other scandals which led to the CRNC's decline, two national federations (the College Republicans of America and the National Federation of College Republicans) were created.[7][8] The CRA was created by a partnership of the unaffiliated California College Republicans and Wisconsin Federation of College Republicans in order to fill the power vacuum following the CRNC's decline. Over the next year year, the CRA would charter various College Republican state federations from the CRNC, NFCR, and various independent organizations. These state federations included New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kansas, and Arizona with various college chapters being chartered in states like Rhode Island, Indiana, Minnesota, South Carolina, and more. Following the CRA's chartering of the New York Federation of College Republicans, the CRA became the largest national organization by active chapter count, totaling around 130.

On January 10th, 2024, the CRA endorsed former President Donald Trump for the 2024 United States Presidential Election and campaigned for him during the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucus and the 2024 New Hampshire republican primary.[9][10] Prior to the caucus, the CRA established a relationship with the Heritage Foundation through Project 2025 senior advisor James Bacon.[2] Following this campaigning, the CRA established an official relationship with Turning Point Action, founded by Charlie Kirk, with the CRA's President Will Donahue speaking at Turning Point Action's RNC-exclusive "Restoring National Confidence Summit" on behalf of the CRA.[11] 19 year old Gabe Guidarini of the CRA gave the pledge of allegiance and spoke to the 2024 Republican National Convention stating that MAGA appeals to "young Americans in general."[12][13]

Notable chapters

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Yale

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After six years of being defunct the Yale College Republicans revived in January 2024 as a member of the CRA after the group split following the 2016 election with anti-Trump republicans forming a splinter, the Yale New Republicans, which caused neither group to have enough support to exist by 2018.[14][15]

Syracuse

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A Sara Stockton speaking event scheduled for November 29, 2024 at Syracuse University about her role in the 2022 What Is a Woman? documentary was subjected to severe backlash from local Transgender support groups and faculty claiming Stockton is "unethical" and the event was "hate speech." A petition pressured the Syracuse University’s Student Association to cut all funding for the event, however, the CRA stepped in to provide the needed cash so the event could go ahead. The efforts by the faculty member that both created and spread the petition, as well as the Student Association's decision to cut funding was met with backlash over free speech concerns by other campus groups.[16]

University of Arizona

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Benjamin Jackson, a member of the University of Arizona's College Republicans, which are a member of the CRA, was disqualified from an election to the Associated Students of the University of Arizona because he refused to list his preferred pronouns in his election profile. With help from the CRA Jackson appealed the decision and won, going on to win the election in a landslide.[17]

Governance

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College Republicans of America

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The CRA President and the national committee consist of an appointed president, appointed vice-presidents, appointed directors, a program director, and annually elected regional representatives.[18] The CRA also has a Board of Governors which consist of one National Committeeman per state, elected or appointed by that state (so long as they are "in good standing") via however the state sees fit. In addition to the aforementioned "leadership team," the CRA has a "VIP President's Cabinet" which acts as a donor-based advisory board for students, individuals, and organizations. The CRA provides goods and services such as fundraising assistance, "chapter boxes," and political work to member federations and chapters.

State Federations

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State federations are autonomous non-profit associations or other authoritative organizations chartered with the CRA which oversee the activities of university College Republican chapters.[19] Organization of state federations under the CRA do not have any substantive differences between non-chartered state federations. State federations are often associated with their state's Republican party or state's Young Republican organization, despite not being legally connected to either.[19] State federations traditionally assist university chapters with legal issues, statewide campaigns, media, financial assistance, or any other needed assistance.[19]

References

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  1. ^ Stewart, Scott (July 24, 2002). "The College Republicans – A Brief History" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 2, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Will Donahue Discusses The Campaign Efforts Of College Republicans In Iowa, retrieved February 17, 2024
  3. ^ Sanchez, Olivia (November 6, 2023). "Reporter's Notebook: Why are campus political groups so hard to track down?". The Hechinger Report. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  4. ^ Parker, John (February 14, 2024). "NYFCRs Charters With College Republicans of America in Historic Charter" (Press release). Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  5. ^ Stanley-Becker, Isaac. "Charlie Kirk's right-wing empire loses a key asset: Students for Trump". The Washington Post.
  6. ^ Chang, Richard J. "College Republican Branches Leave National Org Over Allegations Of Election Scandal, Mismanaged Funds". Forbes. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  7. ^ "National Federation of College Republicans (NFCR) | About". NFCR. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  8. ^ "College Republicans chairwoman denies involvement in fake sexual assault plot in past election". Yahoo News. August 6, 2021. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  9. ^ "Donald Trump arrives in Beverly Hills to rake in campaign cash". Daily News. June 7, 2024. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
  10. ^ Ulatowski, Rachel (May 31, 2024). "Conservatives Turn on College Republicans for Accepting Trump's Guilty Verdict". The Mary Sue. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
  11. ^ "President Donahue Speaks at Turning Point Action Summit, Shares CRA's Triumphant 9-month Journey". www.uscollegegop.com. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  12. ^ Moore, Elena. "It's easy to believe young voters could back Trump at young conservative conference". NPR. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  13. ^ Colt, Jasper. "Best scenes from Day 4 of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee". USA Today. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  14. ^ Diamond, Gabriel. "The return of the Yale Republican". The Hill. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  15. ^ Moses, Nora; Tillen, Chris. "Newly revived Yale College Republicans enters first semester". Yale Daily News. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  16. ^ Browne, Austin. "Syracuse prof's petition blames conservative speaker for contributing to trans suicidality". Campus Reform. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  17. ^ "Conservative student wins Arizona student gov election despite attempts to disqualify him". Campus Reform. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  18. ^ "Bylaws of the College Republicans of America" (PDF).
  19. ^ a b c "College Republican National Committee" (PDF). crnc.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 13, 2004. Retrieved February 15, 2024.

Sources to cite

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Yeah this is a little sloppy, but this is a draft after all, there is a NYT article that is behind a paywall that according to google contains their full name, I'll get around to reading it later, but in case I forget it'll be here for anyone else working on the article