College Republicans Talk 2020 Elections

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Courtesy of Ram Archives

College Republicans meets on Thursdays in Hughes hall.

Helen Stevenson, News Editor

President Donald Trump is running for re-election in 2020, but he is not the only Republican on the ballot. Mark Sanford, former governor of North Carolina, Joe Walsh, former congressman from Illinois, and William F. Weld, former governor of Mass., are also running for the Republican National Committee (RNC) nomination.

Although the sitting president has an advantage in presidential primaries, Timothy Kyle, FCRH ’21, president of College Republicans, said he is unsure whether or not the majority of club members will support Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

The Fordham College Republicans are a big tent club–we represent all types of conservatives, libertarians and other right-leaning students,” he said. “Many in the club support Trump, and many do not.”

However, vice president of College Republicans, Olivia Ingrassia, FCRH ’21, said she is confident a majority of the club members support the president’s re-election campaign.

Although the College Republicans have not officially endorsed any candidate for the 2020 election, Kyle and Ingrassia said they intend to support President Trump.

Ingrassia said she supports all the president’s actions regarding immigration policy and trade tariffs with China within the past two years and believes he has exposed corruption within the “ruling class” and mainstream media.

“The President spearheaded this anti-globalist, America First movement, riding a wave of populist discontent with the prevailing established order into the White House in 2016,” she said. “Unlike other members of his party, Trump is a war-time conservative who single-handedly revived the Republican Party from its dying breed of open-borders neo-conservatism.”

Kyle, however, is not entirely satisfied with the president’s positions, particularly regarding gun legislation. Although President Trump has advocated for expanded background checks for gun owners in the past, it is reportedly unclear what his current position is.

“Personally, I am not entirely happy with many of the President’s actions, and would prefer a Republican candidate who was stronger on civil liberties such as gun rights and protection from unreasonable search and seizure,” he said. “Despite this, I recognize that President Trump is the best chance the Republican Party has to win in 2020.”

As of Oct. 8, the House Democrats are conducting an impeachment inquiry into the president for pressuring President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President and current presidential candidate Joe Biden. The investigation began after a government official filed a whistle-blower complaint against the president.

However, Ingrassia and Kyle believe the criminal investigation could be a positive thing for the president’s 2020 campaign.

Ingrassia referred to the inquiry as an attack by the “Deep State,” a conspiracy theory that suggests the government is secretly run and corrupted by a network of non-elected officials. Kyle said that those partial to concerns of the “Deep State” will likely be energized by the impeachment proceedings, which will act as confirmation of the president’s allegations of wrongdoing.

“The so-called ‘whistleblower’ and those several government officials who gave him the information are conspirators within the Deep State looking to undermine the President, because of their deep-seated political biases,” said Ingrassia. “If anything, this impeachment inquiry will only hurt the Democrats come 2020.”

In light of the current roster of Democratic Party candidates for 2020, Ingrassia and Kyle said they are confident that Trump will win re-election. They believe the Democratic Party has become “radical” and “extreme.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden is the only real competition, according to Kyle.

“I would like to see the President debate Mr. Biden, the Democratic frontrunner, who is by far the most moderate person running for the Democratic nomination and thus the realest threat to Trump,” he said. “A debate between them would be the only debate with any consequences for the race and thus the only debate worth holding.