The Kids Are Not Alright: Chaos at the College Republican National Committee

The job of College Republican National Committee (CRNC) chairman is a significant one. College Republican chapters around the country are vital to GOP get-out-the-vote efforts, and the job provides networking opportunities that often serve as a launching pad for a career in the party and conservative movement — just ask Karl Rove.

Strong, stable leadership at the top of the CRNC is doubly important because the chairman wields so much power within the organization. At their discretion, they may decertify certain state college Republican conglomerates (usually called federations) and admit others.

If students are under the impression that the whole edifice is corrupt, or rigged, they are far less likely to become members and door-knockers in the short term, and party activists or even officeholders in the long term. A number of students and recent graduates who hold paid leadership positions in the group told National Review they are under that exact impression.

They claim that the race to become the next chairman of the CRNC has been derailed and delegitimized by the underhanded actions of outgoing chair Chandler Thornton, and Southern Regional Vice Chair Courtney Britt — Thornton’s preferred successor. Whether Thornton and Britt ultimately succeed in this aim will be determined at Saturday’s CRNC convention, where states will cast their allocated votes for either Britt or Western Regional Vice Chair Judah Waxelbaum.

Well, where some states are set to vote.

The CRNC allocates votes to states based on chapter membership rolls submitted to it in February, which are then reviewed by an outside auditing firm. After this initial round of credentialing, 22 states were not allocated any votes — an unusual and “alarming” occurrence, according to CRNC treasurer Ty Seymour.

States are then permitted to appeal by asking for votes if they did not receive any, or asking for more if they believe themselves to be so deserving based on the numbers. The credentialing appeals meeting was held this past Sunday, July 11 and was presided over by an outside arbitrator, Jay Goldstein, who was hired by Thornton.

Thornton scheduled the meeting for 3 a.m. Pacific Time, which many involved saw as a way of making things difficult on Waxelbaum — who is from Arizona — and the coalition of states supporting him.

The results of the meeting shocked Waxelbaum and his supporters.

“Every single state that has endorsed me was denied their appeal, and every single state that my opponent was granted their appeal,” Waxelbaum explained to National Review. “My opponent’s home state of Virginia was increased from 4 votes to 7. So, for context, Virginia currently has more votes than California, New York, and Florida combined.”

Most of the disqualifications stemmed from the failure of states supporting Waxelbaum to produce two letters from universities in their states certifying that College Republican chapters are registered with them, as is required by the CRNC constitution.

Among the states without a vote to their name after Sunday is Florida, whose federation is chaired by Stephanie Torres. She says that during the 2020 campaign cycle, Florida federation members knocked on close to a million doors. Moreover, Torres submitted a 200-page appeal document and provided the CRNC with evidence of 15 chapters and 1,200 members.

“Our chapters feel like their hard work is being thrown in the trash,” Torres said in an interview. She also expressed her intention to support a resolution at the convention to guarantee every state the minimum of three votes. “I think both candidates, it’s in their best interest to make sure that everyone who’s an active organization has representation.”

Seymour, who has attended three prior conventions, says that in the past, this rule was interpreted to mean that you had to produce the letters only if you submitted nothing by the initial, February 1 deadline. This year, it was required of every school that did not receive approval. He told National Review, “I actually don’t think there’s ever been a case where a state has been denied their voting rights so long as they were there and present to appeal for themselves … So this is all unprecedented.”

Goldstein announced at the start of the meeting that he would not be interpreting the Constitution, and would instead defer to National Co-Chairman Tom Ferrall’s reading of it. Some might wonder what the point of hiring an arbitrator to handle debates over the meaning and application of the rules was if another, less independent party, was given authority over all constitutional interpretations.

Waxelbaum alleges that all of this was part of a larger, coordinated conspiracy to ensure Britt wins.

“It’s obvious what their goal was. I would have a different case to make if a single one of her states was denied votes, or if any of mine were approved.”

Evidence for this theory comes in the form of the way many states supporting Britt submitted their letters to Goldstein and the CRNC’s credentialing committee. In a ten-minute period around 4 a.m. Eastern Standard Time — only two hours before the appeals meeting was to begin — states that had endorsed Britt provided the documentation via email. The individual messages inside contained nearly the exact same language, with many being exact copies of each other — adjusting for state and federation chairman names.

The new rule interpretation was, it would seem, weaponized to disenfranchise most of the pro-Waxelbaum states; Britt’s coalition was extra careful not to tip off their opponents.

Torres was especially surprised because she had asked Britt — her regional vice chair and a graduate of the University of Richmond’s law school — to review her appeal materials. Britt had given her approval, although she included the caveat that she could make no guarantees.

“We don’t blame anybody for what happened because it could have happened as a miscommunication issue, but at the same time Courtney is our southern regional vice chairwoman and we sought her advice and I wish things had turned differently, I wish they had been brought up,” lamented Torres.

Others are angrier. The New York federation released a “dossier” alleging financial wrongdoing by Thornton. Texas’s regretfully reported that “a 139-year-old party institution has been corrupted by the gross pursuit of power and unethical greed.” Ten federations issued a joint statement proclaiming that they could “not remain in an organization that so devalues the efforts of our members” and maintaining that while a lack of transparency has long plagued the CRNC, it was “weaponized” this election cycle. Even some national figures have gotten involved, with state chairmen weighing in on behalf of their little brothers.

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While the “two letter” requirement was the primary means by which the pro-Waxelbaum forces were dismantled, it was not the only way.

National Review previously reported that Thornton attempted to use a factional split in Arizona to tip the scales in the state in Britt’s favor.

These issues came up again at the appeals meeting, but Goldstein ruled in Waxelbaum’s favor.

Thornton had more success in Louisiana, where he unilaterally stripped the Louisiana Federation of College Republicans — the longstanding state CRNC affiliate — of its membership, admitting the Louisiana Association of College Republicans in its stead. His casus belli? A complaint, the details of which are unclear, from a student who was at the time a member of neither the federation nor the CRNC.

At the time of the association’s elevation, it was composed of chapters at his Louisiana State University, Louisiana Tech University, and the University of Louisiana Monroe. Neither of the latter two institutions recognized a College Republicans chapter at the time of the association’s recognition, according to correspondence from school officials obtained by National Review. University recognition, so important in the case of the two-letter requirement, was apparently an afterthought in this case.

Collin McBride, the chairman of the Louisiana federation, received notice of his organization’s decertification on June 25. That’s exactly a week after he asked Thornton and Britt if he could see the complaint that had been lodged against his federation, a right granted to him by the CRNC constitution. Both national board members professed not to be sure what McBride was talking about and pledged to speak with him about it sometime in the next week since they were busy.

McBride says he still hasn’t seen the complaint.

The appeals meeting was equally frustrating for the Louisiana federation. McBride described it this way: “We barely got to speak. Every time myself or [his predecessor] Rachel Howard tried to speak, we were shut down.”

More absurd still was a judgment by Goldstein that the association was entitled to the three votes granted to the federation back in February, three votes granted on the basis of the federation’s membership rolls. This means that as of right now, the newly formed association is slated to cast votes that the federation earned through its submission of rolls and other documents.

McBride remembers reaching out to Britt, his regional vice-chair, when he first took notice of the rival organization’s existence earlier this year. She said she was busy and asked for more information about it. Within ten minutes, McBride found the association on Twitter. Britt was already following it.

He claims to have been told, shortly after being elected federation chair, “‘watch out for Courtney, because she’s nice to you if she needs you, but once she doesn’t need you, that’s it.’”

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“Currently, 20 percent of the CRNC cannot vote, that’s not even including the states that didn’t get votes and didn’t appeal for votes. Of the states that endorsed me, they removed twelve of them, taking me from 30 states to 18,” Waxelbaum said, explaining the state of play going into Saturday’s election.

He urged the CRNC “to take a long look at what they could be doing here. A CRNC where more than a fifth of the country cannot vote is doomed.”

McBride, chairman of the disenfranchised Louisiana Federation, had strong words as well.

“It feels like Chandler Thornton thinks the federations work for him, and that leads me to believe there is no true leadership in the CRNC. Because true leadership doesn’t work that way. It’s time for the CRNC to realize that as a leader you work for the people under you, not the other way around,” he said.

Goldstein responded to a request for comment by noting “that arbitration is a private dispute resolution process. Arbitrators are ethically required to treat an arbitration proceeding as confidential.” Thornton, Britt, and Ferrall have not responded to such requests.

While last month’s  Arizonan prequel to this episode may have highlighted — and much of the national conversation surrounding the GOP may be focused on — ideological divisions, this battle appears to be of a different kind. Indeed, it’s a reminder that just as important as having the “right” ideas is entrusting the levers of power to actors of high character that seek to use their positions to benefit the institutions they serve, rather than using them as a personal platform.

With hippies surrounding his car, screeching about how they represented the future, Ronald Reagan responded that he intended to sell his bonds. It’d be a stinging indictment of the conservative movement if many make that same calculation after Saturday’s convention.