By Adam Zielonka
For The Diamondback
In an effort to promote inclusivity and attract new members, the University of Maryland College Republicans will not endorse any candidate for office this year — at the presidential level or down the ballot.
Executive board members made their decision after an internal vote via conference call last summer, chapter president Jacob Veitch said.
“If we’re going to endorse a candidate, it’s got to be someone who can make a difference, and it’s got to be someone who can win,” Veitch said.
The decision was based on more than the presidential election, as Maryland is generally a “tough state for Republicans,” Veitch said. Registered Democrats in the state outnumber Republicans by a ratio of about 2-to-1 and a Sept. 22 Goucher College poll of likely voters showed Democratic Senate candidate Chris Van Hollen has a 30-point lead over Republican Kathy Szeliga.
There is precedent for this year’s decision, as the chapter supported Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s 2014 campaign, but did not officially endorse him, said Steven Clark, College Republicans secretary.
But Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and issues of member support also influenced their decision.
At the start of the presidential primaries last year, nobody in the organization supported Trump’s campaign, Veitch said. But now, some members support Trum–p, while some support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and some will vote third-party, he added.
“There’s definitely still some difference of opinion, definitely more so some difference of enthusiasm,” said Veitch, a junior international business and government and politics major.
Trump’s controversial candidacy has some chapters of College Republicans facing difficult choices. The Cornell University College Republicans endorsed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for president, and the New York Federation of College Republicans revoked their credentials as a result. The Yale College Republicans split in two — the traditional organization endorsed Trump, while members who did not wish to affiliate with that endorsement created the Yale New Republicans.
Veitch said the executive board came to its decision before any news of those actions broke.
Chapter treasurer Rahul Sitaram said the board’s decision to withhold all endorsements was largely guided by their goal of making College Republicans “as attractive as possible, to as many people as possible.”
Official endorsements “indirectly alienate people who don’t support that candidate, at any level,” he said.
While the board did consider the potential controversy endorsements could ignite, the executive members thought this year was a good opportunity to “create a better idea internally of why we do what we do,” Veitch said.
“We’re trying to instill in the club this notion that we want to do what’s best for the Republican Party in the long term, because we’re young people,” Veitch said.
Veitch said College Republicans is preparing for its “most robust schedule in recent history.” The group will hold Matt McDaniel, a Republican candidate for Baltimore City Council, for a guest talk on Oct. 18.
Members will also phone bank for Szeliga on Nov. 2, calling phone numbers provided by the Szeliga campaign in order to encourage registered Republicans to vote and persuade independent voters to consider their candidate, Clark said.
“It gets [students] involved in the campaign,” said Clark, a sophomore government and politics major. “I know we have a lot of new members who are excited to work with a Senate campaign.”
Though the chapter won’t endorse Trump, Veitch said he respects Terps for Trump, a student group supporting the Republican nominee.
“They have a great organization over there in terms of doing a lot of things, supporting who they want to support,” Veitch said, but he added that College Republicans is “not a one-candidate machine. We are trying to support up and down the ticket.”
Sitaram said he believes Trump “is energizing young people to become involved in politics.”
“He’s getting them involved in the political process,” said Sitaram, a junior finance and information systems major. “So he’s done something in that regard — where lots of people are involved and passionate about politics, whether they’re for or against him.”
Terps for Trump representatives did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
