The Texas A&M chapter of College Republicans recently moved to de-federate and leave the Texas Federation of College Republicans and the College Republican National Committee. This is according to a Facebook post by Aggie and Texas Elector, Nick Ciggelakis.

According to Ciggelakis, the split came due to a disagreement with the state leadership of Texas Federation of College Republicans (TFCR).

According to sources, two slates ran for leadership control of TFCR with one slate winning the chairmanship and the other controlling the rest of the board. When the chairman stepped down the other ticket had full control of the board and some chapters have not felt able to work with current leadership. A new Texas Association of College Republicans seems to be looking to form for discontented chapters.

Connor Clegg of Texas State posted the following to describe the reasoning behind the new association.

“I hear there’s a lot of infighting with TXFCR and a lot of people got tired and just wanted to get back to work. About half of the federation has decided to work on spreading the conservative message instead of engaging in petulant bickering.”

Texas A&M is considered one of the most conservative public universities in the nation. So the Texas A&M College Republicans are expected to be one of the strongest chapters in the nation.

The Brazos County GOP is not happy about the move and sent a letter sharing their discontent. The letter is addressed to David Isenhour, the current chairman of the Texas A&M College Republicans. It lays out the following as reasons for the Leadership Committee of Republican Party of Brazos County to unanimously have a vote of no confidence in Isenhour’s leadership:

• Lack of Transparency in Conducting TAMU CR Business.
• Choosing Delegates to the State Convention who weren’t involved with the TAMU CR’s,
  one of which led to a direct conflict of interest with a candidate for state office.
• Hostile language and attitude toward the local party.
• Failure to Attend Executive Committee Meetings, resulting in no representation by a
  board member of the CR, although, CR have been on every agenda since you took office.
• Showing up late to the State Convention. ( Missing all of the Morning Session)- Leading
  to your non-participation as a delegate.
• Your recent ill- planned “Revolt” of The TAMU CR from the TXFCR. This defederation
  will leave A&M with no representation in the State Party.

The letter ends by stating this the first measure taken against Isenhour, but that more may come. It is unclear what a county party can do to a college club. Some smaller clubs rely on the relationship with county parties, but many larger ones act completely independently.

A second letter was sent to the entire Texas A&M College Republicans board calling for their resignation.

The recent discussion to effectively gavel out of affiliation with the governing board of TXFCR and therefore, any affiliation with the Republican Party of Texas, is viewed as an egregious violation of party principals, and demonstrates a lack of clear judgement.
The Leadership Committee is concerned that you are shutting down all channels of communication and affiliation with the local party, the state party, the TXFCR, and CRNC.

Therefore, the reasons outlined above are what led to the unanimous vote held by the Leadership Committee calling for your immediate resignations. Good luck in all of your future endeavors.

If a College Republican club were to leave the current Texas Federation of College Republicans they would not be considered a part of the association with the Republican Party of Texas. The new association could move to become an official part of the state party.

It is unclear at this time how many clubs are seeking to leave the Texas Federation of College Republicans and join the Texas Association of College Republicans.