The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/cornell-republicans/)
Many groups across campus hosted watch parties on Election Day, as students came together to watch as live news broadcasts showed the results of the 2024 presidential election.
The Cornell Republicans faced backlash in 2016 after endorsing a third-party candidate and later endorsed Donald Trump in 2020. They are not endorsing a presidential candidate ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Campus groups concerned with abortion legislation canvassed and tabled in preparation for the election.
Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator and the founding editor-in-chief of the right-wing media company The Daily Wire, spoke to a packed audience in Bailey Hall on Monday in an event titled “What’s at Stake on November 5th.” During this talk, Shapiro discussed the upcoming presidential election and fielded questions about intersectionality, free speech, LGBTQ+ politics and former President Donald Trump.
Cornell Democrats and Cornell Republicans hosted a joint flag planting memorial to commemorate the 9/11 attacks.
Conservative thinker and Daily Wire host Michael Knowles spoke at a Cornell event without interruption as students organized a vigil for transgender lives outside the auditorium.
Re: “Santorum Calls Protests Disrupting Lecture Sign of ‘Liberal Intolerance’ at Cornell,” News, Nov. 23
To the Editor:
I hope Cornell can become an institution where different points of view are celebrated, not silenced. Any university, particularly an Ivy League school, should encourage respectful debate with opposing viewpoints. Unfortunately at Wednesday’s Rick Santorum event a small, but vocal group of students inappropriately interrupted his speech claiming that his views are “offensive” to some. The Cornell Republicans did not invite Senator Santorum to campus because we expected a majority of the student body to agree with him; rather we hoped that his perspectives would be educational to students at a university which typically only provides one point of view.
“That’s actually a great gift,” Santorum said of being a conservative student on a liberal campus. “Because you get to hone your skills and hear the best arguments from a lot of smart people who have different points of view than you.”
A protest occurred across the street, at a location designated for protesters by the police. While in line for the event, some students snapped pictures on their phones, while others shouted back in reply, both in agreement and disagreement with the protest.
Re: “Cornell Republicans to Host Rick Santorum as Fall Speaker,” News, Nov. 14
To the Editor:
Appreciating the challenge of producing the immediate post-election issue of The Cornell Daily Sun I wanted to congratulate your staff on a fine job of grappling with both the emotional and strategic issues facing the Cornell and broader Ithaca communities at this time. One article reported on the front page deserves critical comment, however. The invitation of Rick Santorum to visit and speak on behalf of the Cornell Republicans is presented as an uncontroversial, even thoughtful choice of a group who claims to want to return its attention to conservative philosophy after being distracted by the Trump campaign, which Santorum, unlike the Cornell Republicans, supported and endorsed. Santorum is an extreme Islamaphobe, climate change denier, homophobe and sexist, who is opposed to the use of contraceptives even in marriage.