New York State Young Republicans disbanded after racist group chat

[Thiệu Ngô]

State GOP leaders say suspending the group makes for a fresh start.

By Emily Ngo

NEW YORK — New York State Republican Party leaders voted unanimously Friday to disband an organization promoting younger members following POLITICO’s exclusive report on a Young Republican group chat filled with racist and antisemitic rhetoric.

The executive committee of the state party suspended the authorization of the younger arm to operate at a statewide level. Leaders have signaled the step makes way for a fresh start.

“The Young Republicans was already grossly mismanaged, and vile language of the sort made in the group chat has no place in our party or its subsidiary organizations,” New York GOP chair Ed Cox said in a statement.

Five members of the private Telegram chat featuring jokes about gas chambers, Adolf Hitler and rape had close ties to the state GOP. Peter Giunta is a former chair of the Young Republicans group and Bobby Walker at the time of the chat was its vice chair.

Since POLITICO began its reporting on the chat they posted prominently in, Giunta is out of his job as chief of staff to state Assemblymember Mike Reilly and Walker’s offer to manage state Sen. Peter Oberacker’s congressional bid has been pulled. Both young Republicans have apologized for their remarks but questioned whether the chat was altered.

Newsday first reported the plan to disband the state group for Republicans ages 18 to 40.

Earlier this week, the Kansas Young Republicans club was dissolved as well.

Cox sent a formal notice to the National Federation of Young Republicans. In his statement, he also took a dig at Democrats.

“Unlike the Democrat Party that embraces anti-Semitic rhetoric and refuses to condemn leaders who call for political violence, Republicans deliver accountability by immediately removing those who use this sort of rhetoric from the positions they hold,” he said. “This incident was immediately condemned by our most senior New York Republican elected leaders.”

New York Democrats have sought to capitalize on the Young Republicans’ appearances in photos with the Democrats’ political targets, including GOP Reps. Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler, ahead of the midterms. Both Stefanik and Lawler immediately denounced the chat, though Stefanik later called POLITICO’s story a “hit job.”