JEI Statement on Young Republican Telegram Chat Messages

October 16, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 13, 2025

Media Contact:

Steve Rabinowitz

Bluelight Strategies

steve@bluelightstrategies.com

JEI Statement on Young Republican Telegram Chat Messages


Washington, D.C. — The Jewish Electorate Institute, the non-partisan political elections analyst, condemns in the strongest terms the hateful, racist, antisemitic, and misogynistic messages exposed in a leaked Telegram chat among leaders of Young Republican groups across the country, as reported in the media over the past several days.


These messages that celebrate violence, invoke imagery of gas chambers, employ racial and gender slurs, and glorify brutality are beyond grotesque. That they emerged in a space used by GOP-affiliated youth leaders underscores the alarming normalization of extremism and dehumanization within parts of the conservative movement.


JEI is also deeply troubled by the lackluster response on the part of some elected officials. To deflect and attack a candidate from the opposing political party, instead of condemning the hateful rhetoric, directly plays a dangerous game of whataboutism, thereby minimizing the gravity of these revelations. It signals that distraction rather than confronting racism, antisemitism, and misogyny within their ranks is an easier path than assuming

responsibility. Leadership requires moral clarity, not partisan deflection.

 

The White House, Senate, and House leadership of both political parties must forcefully repudiate this conduct, sever ties with those involved, and make clear that bigotry, misogyny, and incitement to violence have no place in American political life, let alone in America.


The Jewish Electorate Institute stands with the communities targeted in these vile messages, and with all Americans who expect their leaders to meet hate with courage, not cowardice. Silence in the face of bigotry is complicity.

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