Texas Young Conservative Groups Keep Dividing

The Texas YR fracture group has fractured

Young Republicans of Texas (YRT), the rogue organization that splintered off of the Texas Young Republican Federation (TYRF), has now splintered.

In response to yesterday’s reporting on how much some members and leaders of the Young Republicans of Texas love Nick Fuentes and/or Hitler, Gulf Coast YRs and Rural YRs have released a joint statement. Both chapters are disaffiliating from the YRT. As an additional measure, they ask that the state GOP “consider eliminating partnership auxiliary statuses for youth organizations” (many states do not have these kinds partnerships).

With three factions of young conservative groups in Texas, the entire situation is playing out in a way that is reminiscent of the College Republicans. College Republicans National Committee (CRNC), the original national organization that you likely think about when you hear the phrase “college republican,” has had several splinter groups: National Federation of College Republicans, College Republicans United, and College Republicans of America.

The various splinter groups have largely struggled to get their footing, but the division has impacted CRNC as well. CRNC’s reputation and finances have suffered from the creation of the new organizations, a fate that Texas Young Republican Federation (and its parent organization, Young Republican National Federation) would likely not be immune to if counties (or states) continue to disaffiliate or start competing groups.

The chaos and division isn’t limited to Texas, young adults, or college students. As the GOP works to figure out its future, the problems are mirrored in other states and at the national level.

Below is the full text of the joint statement from the Gulf Coast YRs and Rural YRs.

Gulf Coast and Rural Young Republicans were both formed in 2023 with the hope of creating multi-county youth organizations to represent swaths of Texas without adequate party youth infrastructure.

Both of our organizations chose to affiliate with the Young Republicans of Texas after party infighting engulfed Young Republicans and YRT was recognized as the official Young Republicans of our party.

Despite great potential to re-align Young Republicans in a more conservative direction, mismanagement and untruthfulness plagued the new organization from the outset.

Allegations were made that the new organization contained several members that do not reflect our values or the Republican Party of Texas’ values. Initially, we dismissed this concern as a concerted smear effort but subsequent reporting revealed that our chapters were misled and that these members were, in fact, involved.

Knowing this, our chapters have decided to disaffiliate from the Young Republicans of Texas.

In addition to disaffiliating from the Young Republicans of Texas, we encourage the SREC to consider eliminating partnership auxiliary statuses for youth organizations.

Our chapters chartered with a simple goal in mind: providing a home for young conservatives and working to elect local Republican candidates. Instead, we have been subjected to a statewide political brush war that has nothing to do with our local people or candidates.

Texas Republicans are losing young people to left-wing ideals because party dysfunction discourages otherwise dedicated activists from getting involved. We believe that local party elders are better suited to choose, recruit, and recognize youth organizations than the statewide Republican Party of Texas.

Our organizations will continue with our respective missions in central-west and southeast Texas, regardless of name or branding considerations. Republicans in Texas can do better by their youth and we intend to prove it.

If you are a member of either organization who wants to talk about what happened, or if you are an SREC member who voted no on YRT/now regrets your affirmative vote, I would love to talk to you. The best way to reach me is on Telegram, second best is through Twitter.

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