College Republicans Change Name to “College Republicans United”

In recent weeks, students on campus have remarked upon the College Republicans’ rebranding as “College Republicans United.” It appears that the chapter is looking for a different outlook and hoping to cement it by cutting ties with the College Republican National Committee (the CRNC, established as the default for most Republican campus groups). The club is placing itself under the umbrella of College Republicans United.

Per its website, College Republicans United (CRU) is tasked with “spreading America First across college campuses since January 2018.” It has eight chapters throughout the country at universities such as Iowa, Iowa State, Arizona, Arizona State, and Nyack College. As a relatively new organization, it does not have much of an established reputation. Still, one can glean from CRU’s website what a Dartmouth chapter under it would look like in practice, certainly in comparison to the chapter as it existed under the CRNC.

The issues cited on the CRU website range from immigration and the American family to religion and the Second Amendment. Clearly noted is that CRU rejects the idea of a “nation of immigrants.” CRU instead declares: “Our ancestors were European settlers that voyaged over a treacherous ocean to establish a republic for their descendants. Out of the natural geography of the continent, a distinct and unique American spirit emerged and has thrived ever since.” The website also outlines a description of immigrants consistent with the group’s anti-immigration platform: “We cannot pretend that bringing in tens of millions of immigrants will improve the lives of the native-born population.” The website adds that, “[c]ontrary to what corporate media and corrupt institutions claim, immigration has negative effects on the country, such as importing reduced living standards and cultures that are antithetical to our own.” The group’s phrase, “antithetical to our own,” is unmistakably directed towards cultures or countries which are not Western or European. 

CRU’s economic justification for this position is that immigrants cannot be productive taxpayers in the United States because “achiev[ing] that tax bracket [means] necessarily displacing an American.” CRU also expresses its weariness over “displacement of American students by foreigners on green cards, American tech workers in Silicon Valley, and the outsourcing of high paying middle class jobs.” Policy prescriptions on this front include ending birthright citizenship (which would require an amendment to the Constitution), a 10-year moratorium on immigration to allow current immigrants “time to properly assimilate into American communities and culture,” and a net-zero immigration policy where emigration and immigration are equal.

On gun issues, CRU cites the Second Amendment not only as a defense of the founding fathers’ intentions, but also as being inherently intertwined with the principles of western civilization. It advocates second-amendment sanctuary cities as well as a no-permits-required policy for ownership of firearms. CRU also firmly establishes itself as anti-Big Tech, calling for the breaking up of the monopolies of Big Tech as well as the outlawing of financial deplatforming. This last point, though, is not well developed on the website and is presented rather like a lofty goal.

This transition to College Republicans United (CRU) as the umbrella organization, away from the College Republican National Committee (the CRNC), corresponds with other developments in the Dartmouth chapter. The club has in fact recently faced various leadership crises and operations issues.

One source within the group explains that the club at large was not actually made aware of the change from CRNC to CRU until some weeks after advertisements and posters with CRU labels had been circulated across campus. The general club members found out about the change to CRU from a post on the Dartmouth Republicans’ Twitter account on April 25th. In this announcement, the club states that it is “officially leaving CRNC, a failing and corrupt organization.” It continues: “We decided that we would rather work with CRU, who are not only much more aligned with us ideologically but also have supported us throughout the year.” 

While general club members would have been left in the dark were it not for Twitter, there have also been some important leadership developments within the group. With the graduation of the Republicans’ president in the winter term, the vice president, Chloe Ezzo, has by all appearances now assumed the position of president. Several sources from within the club reveal that a number of vacancies emerged in executive positions over the course of this term and the last. The reasons for these vacancies were unclear to our sources, although it is known that Ms. Ezzo then appointed members to temporarily hold those positions until they could be permanently filled via elections in the spring. 

At the same time, changes to the club constitution have created a new definition for what constitutes a voting member of the club. Voting members of the Dartmouth Republicans are now those members who have at least 5 hours of activism/service for the club (i.e., attending events and putting up flyers in advance of these events). Our sources were keen to note that the Republicans do not host many events per term, limiting the opportunities for club members to fulfill their voting-rights requirement. Our sources were unsure how many members had earned the right to vote.

To conclude, the move to College Republicans United is just one of several notable changes that have occurred in the club. While CRU is definitely a new and important shift, there have been numerous other no less important developments regarding the Dartmouth Republicans’ leadership and procedure that were simply less overt.