Racist messages among young Republicans are a five-alarm fire for the Miami GOP | Opinion

Binders full of women, extramarital affairs, misuse of campaign funds — those are PR crises. What the Republican Party has on their hands now is a full-blown problem of their own making.

Leaked Whatsapp text messages show racist and extremist views linked to the ranks of the Miami-Dade County GOP leadership, as well as the Turning Point USA chapter president at Florida International University and the former FIU College Republicans recruitment chair.

The texts — obtained by the Miami Herald — are a troubling reality the GOP must confront.

The students in these chats most likely came of age when the Republican Party embraced a leader who has normalized white nationalist and racist rhetoric. By the time many young Republicans today were old enough to vote, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush had long exited the political arena.

A lot of the college Republicans were teenagers when President Trump won his first presidential election. For them, the version of the GOP they know is one where bigotry and extremist views are accepted.

That’s no excuse.

I served as president of the Young Republicans of Palm Beach County in 2015 and was a member of the Palm Beach Country Republican Executive Committee, and I remember when the GOP consisted of principled leaders where antisemitism and racial slurs wouldn’t have been tolerated.

While much has been written about the slow death of principles in the GOP’s party platform, a deeper issue has emerged — especially here in Miami.

As the Herald reported this week, the Miami-Dade Republican Party’s secretary started a group chat mainly for conservative students. According to the Herald, within three weeks it was replete with racial slurs. At no point did the secretary shut it down. He allowed the chat group to continue.

These texts are the second time messages have been leaked from private chats among younger Republicans. These conversations have become normalized. And campus leaders and party activists participating are future political operatives, campaign staffers and candidates.

Look no further than James Fishback. He’s running for governor and has largely centered his campaign on white nationalist themes and antisemitic rhetoric. The Republican Party of Florida hasn’t condemned Fishback — they’ve ignored him.

I’ve seen this before.

In 2015, when Trump descended the golden escalator wearing his red MAGA hat to announce he was running for president, many Republicans wrote him off as unserious. As we all know, he eventually became the party nominee.

What began as fringe rhetoric has become mainstream within the GOP. Language and viewpoints that once were disqualifying are now tolerated or defended — “Trump just tells it like it is.” And now, it’s being replicated.

The text messages at FIU shouldn’t be dismissed as college kids being immature. They’re Republican voters who are likely to help decide the next governor of Florida. In a recent poll by University of North Florida, Fishback polled 32% among 18-34 year olds — his strongest supporters.

The leaked chat — and Fishback — should be treated as a five-alarm fire by the GOP.

The county chairman is. In a statement, Kevin Cooper said, “...Racism, antisemitism, and hatred of any kind have no place in our party, our community, or our country, and the language that has been revealed falls far below the standard expected of anyone in a leadership role…”

Cooper is right. The Miami-Dade GOP’s board voted to request the secretary’s resignation. The party has “commenced the removal proceedings,” Cooper wrote.

That’s drawing a clear line about what the party stands for. I applaud those efforts.

But the group chat didn’t occur in a vacuum. It grew from an environment where that type of ideology and rhetoric goes unchecked. Unless the culture in the GOP changes, it won’t be the last time this happens.

Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com