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Tuesday, Feb. 18
The Indiana Daily Student

campus student life

IU College Republicans elect new president, hoping to revitalize campus presence

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College Republicans at Indiana University are back after more than a year-long dissipation. 

At a meeting Wednesday night, the group of about 20 of students, faculty and local Republicans reorganized and elected — after checking voters’ IDs first — a new president and several other leadership positions.  

The revitalized Republicans are coming off quite a bit of political momentum more than a week into the Trump presidency and over two weeks into Mike Braun’s governorship. And the new leaders hope to build off that, pushing IU more toward Republicans.  

Jack Henning, the organization’s new president, said in a speech after certifying his election that he’s hoping to bring in more prominent speakers and engage further with students.  

“We will grow our presence, sharpen our message and stand proudly for what we believe in,” he said.  

Henning wants to see more Republicans standing proud. He also hopes to see a shift toward more freedom of speech in the classroom — where many Republicans say they felt maligned by professors. 

“You saw right after the election, there’s these speeches in class saying that they think that the sky is falling,” Henning said. “We’re entering a golden age of America, just like the 1980s when Ronald Reagan won.” 

Daniel Liu, the organization’s new secretary, said several of his friends who are Republican were concerned about coming to their meeting or running for positions.  

“It’s almost a taboo issue,” Liu said.  

The past years have been especially frustrating for the college Republicans, who have felt their organization hasn’t been operating at capacity. Henning said they’re essentially rebuilding the club from scratch.  

But that rebuilding effort excited others at the meeting. They hope to see the organization of 20 on Wednesday grow to fill more of the nearly 50,000-student-sized tank at IU Bloomington.  

Two IU College Democrats were present as well and verified the election results. The Monroe County Republican Party Chair William Ellis spoke, hoping to help crack the sapphire-blue county that last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 2000. 

“You can be the crucial difference that we need,” he told the group.  

Many members had worked for U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, who Henning said endorsed his candidacy via text. Banks himself was a president of IU College Republicans at one point. Hamza Sahli, who Henning nominated to become the clubs’ political director, is a field representative for Banks’s senate office.  

“You’re gonna see greater membership and engagement with the community,” Sahli said. “I don’t think you’re gonna see us antagonizing anyone. We want to be vocal, but we don’t want to be a disturbance.” 

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