Young Republicans group disbanded over group chat messages

New York State Republican Party leaders voted unanimously to disband a Young Republican organization from operating at the state level following a report about a group chat containing racist and antisemitic language. 

The Executive Committee of the New York Republican State Committee, which is composed of the 62 County Chairs and elected officers of the committee, voted on Friday to suspend the authorization of the New York State Young Republicans to operate at the state level. 

As a youth political organization, the New York State Young Republicans aimed to engage younger voters and nurture future party leaders before the suspension.

The decision to suspend the group’s authorization follows a Politico report this week about group chat messages exchanged by the leaders of Young Republican organizations throughout the country. The messages included racial stereotypes about black people and jokes about sending people to the gas chambers, as well as jokes about sexually assaulting political opponents. 

Following the vote, NYGOP Chair Ed Cox released a statement condemning the language in the group chat involving the leadership of the Young Republican organization. 

“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,” Cox stated. 

One of the messages referenced in Politico’s report, sent by Bobby Walker, the vice chair at the time of the New York State Young Republicans, described rape as “epic.” The chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, Peter Giunta, also wrote a message in June that stated, “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”

Giunta was referring to a vote deciding whether he should become chair of the Young Republican National Federation, according to Politico. 

“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,” the NYGOP chair added, likely referring to the controversy surrounding Jay Jones, a Democrat nominee for Virginia attorney general. 

Jones, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, is running against Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. Republican leaders, including President Donald Trump, have called on Jones to drop out of the race after text messages he sent in 2022. 

In one of the text messages, Jones said that if he had Virginia Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert in the same room as Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot and had only two bullets in a gun, he would shoot Gilbert with both bullets.

“Three people, two bullets … Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot … Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” Jones wrote. “Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”

In a statement shared by ABC News affiliate 8News earlier this month, Jones apologized for the remarks, saying that reading back his words made him “sick to [his] stomach.”

“I am embarrassed, ashamed and sorry,” Jones said. “I cannot take back what I said; I can only take full accountability and offer my sincere apology. … Virginians deserve honest leaders who admit when they are wrong and own up to their mistakes. This was a grave mistake and I will work every day to prove to the people of Virginia that I will fight for them as Attorney General.”

In his Friday statement, Cox criticized New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, describing her as the “Worst Governor in America.” Cox accused Hochul of failing to condemn Democrats who have wished violence on their political opponents and their families, who have used antisemitic language or expressed support for terror groups like Hamas. 

“Not only did Kathy Hochul not condemn such behavior, she endorses racist and anti-Semitic candidates for elected office,” Cox declared, which is likely a reference to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City. 

Mamdani has repeatedly faced criticism for making anti-Israel remarks that critics have deemed antisemitic. 

In an X post last October, Mamdani referred to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, which the country launched in response to Hamas’ October 2023 terrorist attack, as a “genocide.” Mamdani also insisted in a May 2024 interview that he would not welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the city if elected mayor.