Harvard Republican Club endorses Donald Trump in 2024 presidential election | News

The Harvard Republican Club endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, marking the second time the club has supported Trump after snubbing his campaign during the 2016 election campaign.

Harvard Republican Club President Michael Oved (class of ’25) announced the endorsement in an email to club members late Monday. The decision was made, according to Oved, after an internal vote among the club’s registered voters and a vote by the board. He did not provide information on the majority vote.

“In this race, Donald Trump is the most qualified candidate to lead our nation as President of the United States,” Oved wrote in a statement. “The Harvard Republican Club is proud to officially endorse him.”

The support represents the Harvard Republican Club’s years-long evolution from a conservative “Never Trump” stance to aligning with the rest of the Republican establishment and supporting Trump.

In 2016, 80 percent of club members voted against supporting Trump, and the club issued a statement claiming that Trump’s rhetoric was “poisoning our country and our children.” In 2020, the club endorsed Trump, praising several of his “outstanding accomplishments,” but expressed some concerns about his political stance.

But this year, the club had nothing but praise for Trump – and sharp criticism of US President Joe Biden.

The HRC wrote in a press release that Trump is “the only candidate with the mental capacity to lead our country,” referring to Thursday’s presidential debate between Trump and Biden. Biden’s disastrous performance in the debate put his campaign team on the defensive and heightened concerns about his ability to remain in office for another four years.

“Even liberal media outlets were astonished by Biden’s poor performance, bemoaning his repeated stumbles, his verbiage and his inability to adequately discuss his own policies,” the HRC wrote. “Millions of Americans – including this body – are wondering: Who is really running the country under a Biden presidency?”

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung wrote in an emailed statement that Trump would “unite the entire party and all Americans to defeat Biden.”

Notably, the HRC press release avoided any mention of Trump’s conviction last month on 34 counts. The press release also did not address another set of Trump’s favorite talking points: his claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” and his defense of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to protest Biden’s election victory.

Instead, the press release touted the Trump administration’s policy agenda, including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which permanently cut the corporate tax rate and temporarily reduced rates for some individual tax brackets.

The Human Rights Council also praised Trump’s work to “curb illegal immigration and build the border wall” as well as his “commitment to protecting the Second Amendment.”

The press release also focused on Trump’s completion of the Supreme Court’s 6-to-3 conservative majority, praising cases such as Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, where the court declared race-conscious admissions processes unconstitutional, and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and left abortion policy to state governments.

In an interview, Oved pointed out that the highly politically motivated statement was a way to increase the appeal of Trump and the Republican Party. He described it as “a statement that is not only aimed at the Harvard student body, not only at Republicans, but also at Democrats, independents and moderates.”

“Especially on university campuses, you see students and sometimes even professors who just don’t understand how it can be that people actually support President Trump,” Oved said.

“By laying everything out in this recommendation, we can show them what we believe in – and that we have gotten everything from the right sources,” he added.

Conservative students represent a small minority of Harvard’s student body, and Trump supporters an even smaller portion. In The Crimson’s September poll of Harvard’s class of 2027 graduates, only 8.4 percent of respondents identified themselves as conservative or very conservative.

Only 3.6 percent of students said they viewed Trump favorably, down from 7.1 percent in 2020. However, only 39.8 percent of the class of 2027 viewed Biden favorably, compared to 90.1 percent of the class of 2024 in 2020. This year’s poll marks a sharp decline in support for both candidates ahead of the 2024 election.

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves or on threads @elyse.goncalves.

—Editor Tilly R. Robinson can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @tillyrobin.