Trump candidacy fuels rift among College Republicans
DURHAM, N. C. Every four years, College Republicans around the country rally around the GOP nominee for president. But this year, Donald Trump has turned the tradition into a moment of reckoning, pitting club members against club members and chapters against chapters in ways that mirror the feuding in the Republican Party.
At the top 75 universities with College Republicans chapters, based on U. S.
News and World Report’s rankings, 14 chapters have formally endorsed Trump and six more have issued supportive statements; 14 have explicitly declined to endorse him or endorsed another party’s candidate; and another three have issued statements opposing Trump, according to a survey conducted byMedill News Service.
Thirty- nine College Republicans chapters had no statements at all; not surprising, as support for the party’s nominee is typically amoot point.
Trump’s divisiveness has caused clubs nationwide to weigh in. The first was the Harvard Republican Club in early August, which declared it would not be supporting the GOP nominee for the first time in 128 years.
At least one school — University of Virginia — rescinded its explicit endorsement after the tape of Trump making lewd comments was released and a surge of Republicans called on him to drop out. However, Republicans at Emory College in Atlanta endorsed Trump a few weeks after the tape’s release, and Southern Methodist University decided last Wednesday to endorse the GOP nominee.
The split among College Republicans mirrors a party- wide divide. After the release of the 2005 AccessHollywood tape, the USA TODAY Network found about 25% of Republican governors and members of Congress were declining to endorse Trump.