Kai Schwemmer (center), a 23-year-old rightwing influencer with a history of provocation, was recently appointed the political director of College Republicans of America (CRA). Illustration: Guardian Design / Getty Images / Alamy / Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Kai Schwemmer (center), a 23-year-old rightwing influencer with a history of provocation, was recently appointed the political director of College Republicans of America (CRA). Illustration: Guardian Design / Getty Images / Alamy / Shutterstock Republicans College Republicans are fighting and the far right is benefiting: ‘It looks very childish’ Tensions in the national party are trickling down to US college campuses, where a newer student group is rapidly outflanking longstanding moderate rivals
When the Utah county clerk’s office announced last month that it was hiring Kai Schwemmer – an undergraduate at Brigham Young University and a rightwing influencer – to help reach younger voters, an uproar ensued.
An energetic and fast-talking 23-year-old, Schwemmer is a rising star of campus organizing at the College Republicans of America (CRA). He is also a prolific livestreamer with a record of provocation – which returned to haunt him when more than 80 prominent women in Utah signed a letter protesting against his hiring.
Drawing on reporting earlier this year by the Guardian, critics noted that Schwemmer, who had been appointed as chief deputy clerk, had made remarks suggesting women are unsuited to public office, criticizing universal suffrage and endorsing “family voting”, a concept sometimes associated with Christian nationalists. In 2022, he attended a conference organized by Nick Fuentes, an antisemitic far-right pundit, and appeared in a supportive documentary about him.
Read more In March, Schwemmer was also named political director of the CRA, the country’s fastest-growing national federation of college Republicans . When critics raised similar concerns, Martin Bertao, the group’s president, responded: “I would like to apologize… to absolutely NOBODY,” adding that the “CRA will never back down to the WOKE mob!”
The controversies dogging Schwemmer, and the CRA’s cavalier response, are illustrative of the extent to which parts of the college Republican movement – not to be confused with, though also not unlike , the scandal-plagued Young Republicans – have been won over by a hard right that views moderate Republicans with scorn, apes Donald Trump’s confrontational style, and has ties to extremists.
Republican student groups have long acted as a talent pipeline to the national party and helped turn out voters. But ideological, personal and financial disputes in recent years have split the movement into three main national college Republican groups. Since its founding just three years ago, the CRA has grown rapidly, outflanking and displacing two more established – and more moderate – rivals in part thanks to its radical posture.
No one is getting recognition [from the RNC] because of this infighting Chaston Atkins The CRA is “more ideologically aligned with the next generation of Americans” than other college Republican groups, said Bertao, who is an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley.
Each of the three groups views itself as the movement’s true voice – but none are officially recognized by the Republican National Committee.
“As of right now, no one is getting recognition because of this infighting,” said Chaston Atkins, the chair of the G…