GOP leaders in New York state unanimously voted on Friday to disband the Young Republicans, following revelations of member involvement in a long-running group chat that joked about gas chambers, slavery, and rape.
According to Politico, the executive committee of the state Republican Party eliminated the charter of the youth action arm, which will allow them to reconstitute the group with new leaders.
“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.
The outlet reported that five members of the long-running Telegram chat that featured antisemitic, racist, and misogynistic messages were closely linked to the state Republican Party.
State Assemblymember Mike Reilly said earlier this week that Peter Giunta’s time working as his chief of staff “has ended” following the leaked messages. Giunta served as chair of the New York State Young Republicans group during the seven-month span when the chat took place.
Bobby Walker, who was then the group’s vice chair, has since seen his offer to manage state Sen. Peter Oberacker’s congressional campaign rescinded in the fallout from the scandal.
Both Giunta and Walker have reportedly apologized for the language in their messages.
The Kansas City Star reported that the state’s Young Republicans organization was shut down as well in the wake of the revelations, which involved Young Republican leaders from Kansas, Arizona, and Vermont, in addition to New York.
“Kansas Republican Party leadership is disgusted by the comments by young Kansas Republicans mentioned in the Politico story,” Kansas GOP Chair Danedri Herbert said. “Their comments do not reflect the beliefs of Republicans and certainly not of Kansas Republicans at large, who elected a Black chair a few months ago.”
In a formal notice sent to the National Federation of Young Republicans, Cox said that the incident was “immediately condemned by our most senior New York Republican elected leaders.”
“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.
Heading into next year’s midterms, New York Democrats have sought to link GOP Reps. Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler to the imbroglio via photos they had previously taken with members of the Young Republicans group. Both Empire State Republicans have reportedly condemned the offensive chat.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
