Two leading right-wing campus groups are sitting the 2024 presidential election out when it comes to endorsing a candidate.
Despite having endorsed former President Donald Trump in 2020, the Cornell Republicans and The Cornell Review, a student-run conservative news site, have chosen to not publicly back any presidential candidate this year.
Endorsing presidential candidates is common among college newspapers and student political organizations. The Cornell Democrats, for example, are supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for president.
The Cornell Republicans, a group that has faced intense pressure in the past to endorse Trump, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
In 2016, the organization broke from the national party by endorsing Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson over Trump, stating that Trump “should not be the face of American conservatism.” The decision led to their temporary expulsion from the New York Federation of College Republicans.
Ann Coulter ’84, the controversial media personality and founder of The Cornell Review, went on to call the Cornell Republicans “useless weenies” on Twitter in 2017 in response to a quote from the club president about not supporting Trump that appeared in a New York Times article.
In 2020, the Cornell Republicans changed their tune on Trump, endorsing him for re-election, leading many moderate members to quit the group.
This election cycle, the Cornell Republicans are facing a decline in participation, according to Armand Chancellor ’25, a Sun columnist and former Cornell Republicans executive board member. Chancellor said many conservative students have “drifted away” from the club. Despite the non-endorsement, “it’s not really a question of who they’re voting for,” Chancellor added, referring to Trump.
The Cornell Review’s Editorial Board unanimously endorsed Trump for re-election in 2020. “Undeterred by the anti-free speech climate that has grasped campuses all across America, we unapologetically endorsed Trump,” former Cornell Review Editor in Chief Joe Silverstein ’22 wrote at the time.
The Cornell Review holds close ties with the Cornell Republicans, with the news site’s editor in chief, Max Whalen ’26, also serving as the Cornell Republicans’ vice president.
“The Review will not endorse any political candidate,” The Cornell Review’s Editorial Board wrote in an email statement to The Sun. “We are not concerned with the endorsements of other student organizations.”
The Cornell Review’s Editorial Board has been largely inactive this year, having not published an editorial since June 29, 2023.
Maryam Ismail ’27 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at mmi26@cornell.edu.
