New York GOP suspends Young Republicans chapter after racist chat messages

New York Republican Party officials on Friday voted to suspend its Young Republicans chapter after racist and antisemitic chat messages shared among its members were made public, offering an unfiltered look at how some of the GOP’s up-and-coming leaders communicate in private and triggering a debate within the party over how to respond.

“Today, the Executive Committee of the New York Republican State Committee unanimously voted to suspend authorization of the New York State Young Republicans following a report of a group chat that included racist and antisemitic language on the part of leadership,” state party chairman Ed Cox said in a statement, adding that the group’s “vile language … has no place in our party or its subsidiary organizations.”

The leaked chat and its aftermath have prompted unease among many Republicans, with some questioning Vice President JD Vance’s characterization of the participants, many of whom are in their 20s and 30s, as “kids.” The episode has renewed questions about how the GOP confronts inflammatory rhetoric while facing headwinds in the 2026 midterms as it works to retain the more diverse coalition of voters that Donald Trump attracted in the 2024 election.

“Congressman Lawler has zero tolerance for this kind of hateful rhetoric, no matter who it comes from or the political party they belong to,” said Ciro Riccardi, the communications director for Rep. Michael Lawler (R-New York). “No one in either party should seek to excuse it or diminish it in any way.”

A formal notice from Cox to the Young Republican National Federation — a political organization aimed at Americans ages 18 to 40 — leaves the door open for the suspension to be lifted at an undetermined time.

The vote came in response to a Politico report on a tranche of leaked messages on the Telegram app among leaders of Young Republican groups around the country, many of which were attributed to leaders of the New York State Young Republicans. Members reportedly sent messages that used racist and homophobic slurs and contained praise for Adolf Hitler.

In one exchange, a leader of the New York Young Republicans appeared to lobby fellow members ahead of a vote for him for a national leadership position.

Another leader replied: “Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic.” A third wrote, “I’m ready to watch people burn now.”

Some of those named in the piece lost their government jobs after Tuesday’s story, as national Republicans began reacting to the text messages.

The Kansas GOP also denounced comments made in the chats by members of the Kansas Young Republicans and said it had deactivated the organization.

The national board of Young Republicans said in a Tuesday social media post that it was “appalled by the vile and inexcusable language revealed” in the leaked messages. It said that such behavior was unbecoming of any Republican and called for those involved to resign their positions in the group’s local chapters.

Many state chapters of the Young Republican National Federation have limited power, with members often working on voter mobilization, social events and volunteer recruiting. The leaked messages, exchanged over roughly seven months, spanned four Young Republican groups and drew widespread concern over what they might signal about the views of a rising generation of GOP activists.

There has also been a brewing debate in the Republican Party over free speech and how much to condemn rhetoric that is perceived as out of line. When the latest text messages emerged, most leaders in the Republican Party were quick to condemn them.

Lawler said on social media that he was “disgusted by the hateful antisemitism and racism revealed in these messages.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) said on social media that “elected Republicans rightfully condemned the alleged vile statements and delivered accountability,” but she also criticized Democrats for “hyperventilating” over a “hit piece.”

“Obviously, we roundly condemn any of that nonsense,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said. “Whoever these young people are and whatever they’re saying, if it’s true, we obviously condemn that.”

Vance, however, downplayed the incident, describing the messages as “edgy, offensive jokes” told by “kids.”

In their reactions to the Young Republicans’ messages, Stefanik and Vance each pointed to the recently unearthed 2022 text messages sent by Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general, in which he described a hypothetical shooting of a former state House speaker.

While state and national Democrats have strongly denounced Jones’s comments, they have not joined in Republican calls for him to drop out of the race.

Vance said that those texts were “far worse” than what was in the Young Republicans’ Telegram messages and that he refuses “to join the pearl-clutching when powerful people call for political violence.”

Some within the party said privately that Vance’s comments seemed to minimize the problematic nature of the remarks. Republicans should condemn the hateful messages that came from members of their party, some argued, just as much as they should condemn the messages from Democratic leaders.

“I think that what we ought to be is unequivocal in how we view this and how we view this should be simple: that these people do not represent the beliefs of the Republican Party, because they do not,” said CJ Pearson, former co-chair of the Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council. “And so it’s not about pearl-clutching. And I also don’t buy into this idea that we should reduce this to a group chat of kids, right? These are grown … men and women.”

“I wouldn’t say that they are young and dumb,” he said. “It was very intentional, and I think they have a habit of using such language as they have so freely.” Johnson added that disbanding the chapters involved was appropriate, and that he believes that Vance “agrees that decency should be on both sides, and we just need people to be decent in America.”