The New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) is an organization for members of the
Republican Party between the ages of 18 and 40 in New York City. The New York Young Republican Club is the oldest and largest chapter in the United States, founded in 1911 with predecessor organizations going back to 1856. The club is affiliated with and officially recognized by the New York State Young Republicans and the
Young Republican National Federation
The Young Republican National Federation, commonly referred to as the Young Republicans or YRNF, is a 527 organization for members of the Republican Party of the United States between the ages of 18 and 40. It has both a national organization ...
, as well as the county,
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
, and
national Republican committees.
New York City Republican organizations were once a bastion of
moderate Republicans with liberal or centrist views on social issues, but since the election of
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
have moved sharply to the
political right
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, auth ...
.
[N.Y.C. Was Once a Bastion of G.O.P. Moderates. Then Trump Came Along.](_blank)
''New York Times'' (October 17, 2020).
History
Founding
In April 1911, thirty-two young men, led by a young Manhattan lawyer Benjamin M. Day, along with, Philip J. McCook,
Lloyd Carpenter Griscom,
Frederick Paul Keppel
Frederick Paul Keppel (July 2, 1875 – September 8, 1943) was an American educator and executive in the field of philanthropy. In education he served as dean of Columbia College, in government he served as Third Assistant Secretary of War, and ...
,
Henry W. Goddard,
Edward R. Finch,
Alfred Conkling Coxe Jr.
Alfred Conkling Coxe Jr. (May 7, 1880 – December 21, 1957) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Education and career
Born in Utica, New York, on May 7, 1880, Coxe recei ...
,
Lindon Bates Jr.
Lindon Wallace Bates Jr. (July 17, 1883 – May 7, 1915) was an American engineer and politician from New York who died on the ''Lusitania''.
Life
Bates was born on July 17, 1883, in Portland, Oregon, the son of engineer Lindon Wallace Bates a ...
,
Thomas D. Thacher,
Albert S. Bard, and
Robert McC. Marsh, formed the New York Young Republican Club. This was an offshoot of the earlier New York Young Men's Republican Club, founded in 1879 amid the rise of
political club
The political club is a feature of Urban politics in the United States, American urban politics usually representing a Political parties in the United States, particular party in a Neighbourhood, neighborhood. They were most prominent in the later ...
s, which itself was a descendant of the even earlier New York Young Men's Republican Union founded in 1856.
The club's first public appearance was a dinner held in December 1911. The guest of honor was the President of the United States,
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
, and the principal speaker was Idaho Senator
William Borah
William Edgar Borah (June 29, 1865 – January 19, 1940) was an outspoken History of the United States Republican Party, Republican United States Senator, one of the best-known figures in History of Idaho, Idaho's history. A Progressivism ...
.
In 1930, the New York Young Republican Club circulated a questionnaire to its members; of the 649 responses, an overwhelming number (424) supported the repeal of the
Eighteenth Amendment (which
prohibited alcohol), 117 favored modification of the
Volstead Act
The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was an act of the 66th United States Congress, designed to carry out the intent of the 18th Amendment (ratified January 1919), which established the prohibition of alcoholic d ...
, and only 108 favored enforcement of prohibition.
Dewey administration
The New York Young Republican Club was significant to the political network of Governor
Thomas Dewey
Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948: although ...
. Club members were important parts of Dewey's campaigns for governor and president, and in 1952 and 1956, Dewey used the club to promote the presidential campaigns of
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
.
[Geoffrey Kabaservice, "On Principle: A Progressive Republican" in ''Summer in the City: John Lindsay, New York, and the American Dream'' (Johns Hopkins University Press: 2014: ed. Joseph P. Viteritti), pp. 29-30.] In the 1950s,
John V. Lindsay, later
mayor of New York City
The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...
, joined the organization, which was an all-male group at the time.
[ He became vice president of the group in 1951 and (after Eisenhower's win in 1952, became president of the group).][ During his presidency of the group, Lindsay was involved in an acrimonious internal battle between a faction led by ]Charles Miller Metzner
Charles Miller Metzner (March 13, 1912 – November 30, 2009) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Education and career
Born in New York City, New York, Metzner received a ...
(to whom Lindsay belonged) and a rival faction led by F. Clifton White and William A. Rusher
William Allen Rusher (July 19, 1923 – April 16, 2011) was an American lawyer, author, activist, and conservative columnist. He was one of the founders of the conservative movement and was one of its most prominent spokesmen for thirty years as ...
.[
]
1964 elections
In 1964, the ''New York Times'' described the club as "not a large one" but "old and influential in Young Republican affairs."[City Young G.O.P. Club Election Won by Rockefeller Supporters]
''New York Times'' (February 22, 1964), p. 19. That year, the club was described as having 1,200 members citywide.
''New York Times'' (August 5, 1964).
Amid the 1964 Republican presidential contest between New York's Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...
and Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presiden ...
, a pro-Rockefeller faction won the club's presidency by a vote of 365–202 over an independent candidate running with conservative support.[ The group endorsed Rockeller's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination by a 184–6 vote, and endorsed, by a 187–1 vote, the re-nomination of state Senator ]MacNeil Mitchell
MacNeil Mitchell (July 18, 1904 – December 17, 1996) was an American lawyer and Republican politician from New York.
Life
He was born on July 18, 1904, in Lime Rock, Litchfield County, Connecticut, the son of George Henry Mitchell and Harriet ...
, who was facing an insurgent primary challenge from Jacob Javits
Jacob Koppel Javits ( ; May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was an American lawyer and politician. During his time in politics, he represented the state of New York in both houses of the United States Congress. A member of the Republican Party, he al ...
's nephew Eric Javits. The same year, the Club supported John V. Lindsay's decision to run for re-election as mayor as an independent Republican; the group broke from the leaders of other Young Republican clubs in the city, such as those of City College, New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
, Columbia College, and Fordham University
Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...
, as well as the Young Women's Republican Club of New York, all of whom condemned Lindsay's decision.[
]
Since 2016
After the rise of Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
, the city's Republican groups moved decidedly to the right.[ In December 2020, amid the ]COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, the New York Young Republican Club hosted a gala in Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.[Matt Gaetz
Matthew Louis Gaetz II ( ; born May 7, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative for since 2017. A Republican, he has been described as an ally of former president Donald Trump, as well as a proponen ...]
, a Republican congressman from Florida, and James O’Keefe, a right-wing activist, attended the party. New Jersey's Democratic Governor Phil Murphy
Philip Dunton Murphy (born August 16, 1957) is an American financier, diplomat, and politician serving as the 56th governor of New Jersey since January 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the United States ambassador to Germa ...
criticized it.
The club endorsed the re-election of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 Brazilian presidential election. When Bolsonaro narrowly lost, the club accused Brazilian left-wing parties of mass voter fraud (without offering any evidence in support of this assertion); claimed that Bolsonaro was the rightful winner; and endorsed a military coup
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such ...
to keep Bolsonaro in power.[Alex Griffing]
New York Young Republicans Declare Bolsonaro Winner of Brazil Election He Lost: 'Send in the Tanks'
''Mediaite'' (October 31, 2022).
In December 2022, the club held a gala event in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
that featured both Republican politicians and far-right extremists.[Jonathan Weisman]
A New York Gala Draws Incoming G.O.P. Lawmakers, and Extremists
''New York Times'' (December 14, 2022). At the event, Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marjorie Taylor Greene (born May 27, 1974), also known by her initials MTG, is an American politician, businesswoman, and far-right conspiracy theorist
Sources describing Greene as "far-right" include:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* who has served as th ...
told attendees that if she and former Trump advisor Stephen K. Bannon had organized the January 6 attack on the Capitol, "we would have won" and "it would have been armed."[ Given top billing for the gala were Taylor Greene, ]Jack Posobiec
Jack Michael Posobiec III ( ; born December 14, 1984) is an American alt-right political activist, television correspondent and presenter, conspiracy theorist,
*
*
*
* and provocateur. Posobiec is known for his pro-Donald Trump comments on ...
(a far-right conspiracy theorist who pushed Pizzagate
"Pizzagate" is a conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle. It has been extensively discredited by a wide range of organizations, including the Washington, D.C. police.
In March 2016, the p ...
conspiracy theories), and Donald Trump Jr.
Donald John Trump Jr. (born December 31, 1977) is an American political activist, businessman, author, and former television presenter. He is the eldest child of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, and his firs ...
; featured as "special guests" were three newly elected incoming Republican House members—George Santos
George Anthony Devolder Santos (; ; born July 22, 1988) is an American politician who is the U.S. representative for , serving since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, Santos was elected to Congress in 2022, after running unsuccessful ...
of New York, Cory Mills
Cory Mills (born July 13, 1980) is an American businessman, defense contractor, and politician serving as a member of the United States House of Representatives for since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he worked in various organization ...
of Florida, and Mike Collins of Georgia.[ Also attending the event was ]Peter Brimelow
Peter Brimelow (born 13 October 1947) is a British-born American White nationalism, white nationalist and White supremacy, white supremacist writer. He is the founder of the website VDARE, an anti-immigration site associated with white supremacy ...
, an anti-immigrant activist whose VDARE
VDARE is an American far-right website promoting opposition to immigration to the United States. It is associated with white supremacy,Sam FrizellGOP Shows White Supremacist's Tweet During Trump's Speech Time, July 21, 2016 white nationalism, ...
website publishes the work of white nationalists
White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara. ''Hate Crimes''. Greenwoo ...
, and members of the Freedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"Aus ...
and Alternative for Germany, two extreme-right European parties with an authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
heritage.[
]
See also
* Young Republicans
The Young Republican National Federation, commonly referred to as the Young Republicans or YRNF, is a 527 organization for members of the Republican Party of the United States between the ages of 18 and 40. It has both a national organization ...
* College Republicans
* Teen Age Republicans
National Teen Age Republicans (TARs) is the youth wing of the United States Republican Party (United States), Republican Party.
TARs have a presence in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, with membership in the tens of thousands. T ...
* Republicans Overseas
Republicans Overseas (RO) is a political organization created in 2013 for United States citizens who are living outside of the United States. RO is recognized by the Republican National Committee (RNC), and by other affiliated groups, such as Co ...
* Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. political committee that assists the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican brand and political platform, as well as assisting in fu ...
* New York Republican State Committee
The New York Republican State Committee, established in 1855, is the New York State affiliate of the United States Republican Party (GOP). The party has headquarters in Albany, Buffalo, and New York City.
References
External links
*
{{Republican Party (United States), state=collapsed
Youth wings of political parties in the United States
Republican Party (United States) organizations
International Young Democrat Union
Youth wings of conservative parties