As of the beginning of the fall semester, the College Republicans have not yet decided if they will be endorsing GOP nominee Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Second-year College student Adam Kimelman, vice chair of campaigns, said the group plans to discuss the issue during their first or second official meeting of the semester.
“We’re kind of on the fence about whether or not to endorse Trump,” Kimelman said. “We will see if there is a consensus one way or another we’re going to do whatever our members want.”
While the current executive board of the College Republicans will take an official stance in the presidential election, this is atypical for the group, which normally makes its endorsements evident through the candidates for which it focuses on campaigning.
“We usually don’t have to endorse or not endorse any of our candidates, but this is an unusual circumstance,” Kimelman said.
Kimelman also said the College Republicans view this election as particularly divisive.
“I believe he says things that attract and have, in the past, mistakenly attracted people to the Republican message for xenophobic and prejudiced reasons,” said Ali Hiestand, vice chair of events for the College Republicans, in a recent interview with The Cavalier Daily.
Hiestand said she was not speaking on behalf of the entire organization, but noted that several members of the College Republicans are “genuinely worried about true conservative principles being confounded with the rhetoric of Donald Trump.”
The University’s College Republicans are not the only ones who have yet to endorse Trump. In fact, some College Republicans chapters have denounced him entirely, including those at American University and Harvard University.
Regardless of the group’s decision, the College Republicans will permit any of their members to use CIO resources to individually campaign for Donald Trump if they would like to.
“If individuals want to support Trump, if they want to chalk, knock on doors, make phone calls, that’s fine,” Kimelman said. “We give the resources for any Republican whether or not we choose to endorse them.”
Kimelman also said the College Republicans are focused on promoting conservative ideals as a whole, and will be focusing on congressional elections this year regardless of whom, if anyone, they choose to endorse in the presidential election.
While there is a possibility that the College Republicans will not campaign for Donald Trump, there is an organization on Grounds exclusively dedicated to this purpose.
Students for Trump is a student-led organization that appoints ambassadors at colleges and universities across the country. These ambassadors lead grassroots campaigning efforts at their respective schools to encourage people to vote for Trump.
While the group is not officially affiliated with the Trump campaign, its website states its goal is to “to motivate and inspire students from across the country by informing them of Mr. Trump’s policies and ideals.”
Second-year College student Sabrina Kim is the Students for Trump Ambassador at the University. Because the semester has not yet begun, Kim said her campaigning efforts have been primarily social media based thus far, both on Facebook and Twitter.
“In that sense it’s like a publicity campaign,” Kim said. “But it’s also like a group or club in the sense that people can be as involved as they want them to.”
The group also plans to give interviews to discuss their reasoning behind supporting Trump.
Next Thursday, a French news organization called French Television will be coming to the University to speak to Kim and other students who support Trump about their decision to do so.
As an organization, Students for Trump at the University focuses on issues its members find relevant at the time based on current events and key voter issues.
“[What we focus on] changes a lot and I would say it’s very dependent on what people are feeling and what’s happening,” Kim said.
Students for Trump and the College Republicans are not currently coordinated in any way; however, Kim said she hopes to work with the College Republicans in the future. Kimelman said that the groups’ memberships may overlap — though he cannot be sure until the College Republicans hold their first few meetings.
Both groups have expressed a strong dislike for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her candidacy.
“If we did endorse Trump, a big reason would probably be that we are more frightened of a Hillary Clinton presidency than we were this time last year,” Kimelman said. “As much as we may not like Donald Trump, we definitely don’t like Hillary Clinton, so it’s picking the lesser of two evils.”
Kim said she is motivated by both her like for Trump and her dislike for Clinton.
“My primary reason, it’s kind of a [combination], but one, it’s my immediate dislike for Hillary Clinton [and] her policies,” Kim said. “In that sense my vote for Trump is a vote against Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.”
Kim also said her key voter issues are foreign policy and military buildup, and she is motivated by Trump’s strong stances in these areas.
University Democrats President Sam Tobin, a fourth-year College student, commented on the College Republicans’ current lack of endorsement for Trump and stance on Clinton.
“I think the difficulty College Republicans, and Republicans everywhere, are having with endorsing Donald Trump shows that he is unfit and unqualified to serve as president of the United States,” Tobin said in an email to The Cavalier Daily. “If groups loyal to your party have trouble endorsing you, that should speak volumes about your candidacy. University Democrats is fortunate enough not to have that problem as we have a fabulous candidate in Secretary Clinton.”
The College Republicans are expected to decide on their endorsement toward the beginning of the semester.
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