Last week, the Dartmouth College Republicans announced it would be welcoming Congressman Madison Cawthorn, Congressional Candidate Karoline Leavitt and Republican digital personality Alex Bruesewitz to campus for an event entitled ‘The Future of the Republican Party.’ The Dartmouth College Republicans’ announcement of high-profile speakers was notable, especially because the club has largely been dormant for the past two years following internal turmoil and leadership struggles, which The Review has extensively covered. Nonetheless, the prelude to Sunday’s event evoked significant campus-wide opposition — event advertisement posters were vandalized, multiple campus groups issued swift condemnations, College Republicans members reported instances of harassment, and it even elicited a protest. This brouhaha begets the question: Why are people upset and what’s at stake?
Before diving into the accusations, it is important to understand the general backgrounds of the invited Republicans. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), at 26-years old, is the youngest member serving in the 117th Congress. In 2020, he defeated a Trump-endorsed Republican primary challenger in his North Carolina district and later won in the general election. Karoline Leavitt, a 23-year old NH native, previously served as President Trump’s Assistant Press Secretary and is currently Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-NY) Director of Communications. She is also running for U.S. Congress in NH’s First Congressional District. Alex Bruesewitz, aged 24, is the founder of political consulting firm X Strategies and holds a significant digital presence with over 111K Twitter followers. According to College Republicans Vice-President Chloe Ezzo ‘22, the event aimed to showcase the next generation of Republican thinkers and potentially inspire students of similar ages to become involved.
As is the case with most campus events, the College Republicans attempted to advertise the panel through posting flyers in public spaces. However, many were quickly torn down. The removal of posters was a repeated phenomenon; despite College Republicans printing and installing new posters throughout the week, almost all replacements faced the same fate. Multiple members of the organization, verified by The Review, personally witnessed other students removing the posters.
One student, who asked to remain anonymous, shared a particularly egregious experience with The Review. While [s]he was studying in a dormitory common room, a group entered and attempted to tear down CR event flyers. While the group initially left after politely being asked not to remove the posters, a smaller group returned to claim it was their “freedom of speech” to rip the flyers. As the students proceeded to reach for the flyer, our source said [s]he raised her hand to de-escalate the situation and try to foster a civil conversation; however, [s]he was physically grabbed, and a member of the group promptly tore up the poster. The following morning, the student woke up to see crumpled event posters under her door, presumably from the same offending party.
The event also drew the ire of several campus groups. One week prior to the event, the Dartmouth Democrats issued a statement that proclaimed: “Any benefit these speakers’ words could bring to the diversity of thought and pool of intellectual ideas at Dartmouth would be more than exceeded by the damage of their fear mongering and lies.” This proclamation was notable as it expressed condemnation from Dartmouth’s largest student organization. The Review reached out to Dartmouth Democrats Communications Director Gabriela Rodriguez ‘23, but received no response. The Dartmouth Editorial Board also released a condemnation of the event, urging the College Republicans to “pick speakers who make a habit of telling the truth,” particularly in reference to the panelists’ positions on the 2020 Presidential Election and COVID-19. The Dartmouth also accused the College Republicans of engaging in “the same thoughtless and sensational tactics that initially led to their relative disappearance from campus life,” referring to the failed February 2020 featuring then-NH Senate Candidate Corky Messner which was cancelled due to dubious claims of violent threats. Indeed, The Review extensively covered that debacle and was the first to report on the dramatized allegations which catalyzed implosion and spurred resignations in the College Republicans.
Nevertheless, there are stark differences between this week’s event and the 2020 Corky Messner one. In 2020, the College Republicans deliberately provoked students by issuing a campus-wide email with a subject heading that read “They’re bringing in drugs.” The Review also criticized this incendiary headline in its reporting almost two years ago as counterintuitive to constructive discourse on campus. However, this year, no provocative statements were issued; advertisements and emails simply included the title of the event — “The Future of the Republican Party” — and photos of the speakers. Opposition to the 2020 Messner event was due to offensive messaging surrounding an important discussion on the bipartisan issue of border security. This time, opposition was due to the mere presence of the speakers themselves.
Admittedly, from a policy lens, I am not quite fond of Rep. Madison Cawthorn and the other speakers. Being vaguely familiar with their rhetoric and propositions, I don’t find their commentary to be particularly insightful. Unlike him, I do not believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and I believe politicians and representatives should play an active role in encouraging the public to get vaccinated. Nevertheless, I also don’t believe it is right to condemn and attempt to derail an event featuring an elected official serving in one of the nation’s highest offices. Freedom of expression inevitably leads to uncomfortable situations; however, it also invites the opportunity to challenge ideas. Unfortunately, not all campus criticism towards the event was constructive, to say the least.
As event posters were ripped down, many were replaced by slanderous leaflets defaming the College Republicans, Cawthorn, Leavitt, and Bruesewitz with extreme language. One poster that circulated was titled “Silence Fascists, Protect Students, Protect Freedoms,” and stated “the ‘free speech’ defense is a lie” and to “let [the College Republicans] cry ‘free speech’ as we tear down their posters.” A similar poster labelled Karoline Leavitt a “pro-forced birth extremist [who supports] cops who murder civilians,” and another flyer accused Cawthorn of being a “white supremacist, imperialist, misogynist and sexual predator.” In total, four different poster templates were circulated around campus to express opposition to the event. Notwithstanding the extreme language, The Review admires these activists’ dedication to arts and crafts. While no campus group took responsibility for tearing down posters and replacing them with vitriolic flyers, it is presumable that the culprits were members of two campus far-left organizations: The Dartmouth Radical and Dartmouth Young Democratic Socialists.
The Review reached out to these organizations but did not receive a response. However, it is plausible these campus clubs were behind the anti-event poster campaign, since these organizations also organized the event counter-protest. Dubbed the “Dartmouth Against Hate Rally,” roughly 50 students gathered outside Moore Hall during the Sunday event to chant generic protest slogans as attendees entered the auditorium, using rhetoric remarkably similar to language on the defamatory flyers.
So, following this brouhaha in the lead up to the event, one might wonder: How did the panel actually go? On a positive note, the actual panel proceeded with few interruptions. While there were a series of scattered temper tantrums and walkouts during the discussion, they posed minimal disruption as the speakers carried on. The content espoused by the speakers did largely come across as an in-person manifestation of every MAGA talking point on Twitter, but if there are two primary takeaways from this entire debacle, let it be known: Free speech is important, and Madison Cawthorn is just as good-looking in person.
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