College Republicans have officially endorsed Donald Trump for president after internal debate on what their official stance should be on the 2016 presidential election.
“Although the College Republicans at Texas have some reservations about Donald Trump, we are officially supporting him as our candidate for president,” College Republicans said in a statement on Facebook. “We do so because of the necessity of having conservative justices on the Supreme Court and we are against the election of Hillary Clinton.”
After their first meeting of the year, College Republicans talked with members about Trump and discussed how they felt about the presidential nominee.
The conversation revealed differing opinions, from heartfelt support for Trump to some students opting out of voting in the election because they do not want to support the nominee.
“I hate Trump, but I’m gonna vote for him,” said one member during the group discussion.
Finance junior Robert Guerra is the current acting president of College Republicans after the former president, supply chain management senior Andrew Jackson, recently stepped down citing time commitment issues.
Guerra said that Trump would not change conservatives’ values.
“People aren’t gonna change their values or what they believe in based on one candidate,” Guerra said. “People who consider themselves as a Republican or conservative aren’t going to stop because of one person.”
Guerra had mentioned in a previous phone interview that the College Republican leadership was going to send out a survey to members to arrive at a consensus on the nominee, but the organization has not revealed if this was the reason for the endorsement.
College Republicans host meetings every other Wednesday at 7 p.m. in UTC 1.146, and their next official meeting is Wednesday, Sept. 28.