Key members of Young Republicans group chat weren’t ‘college kids’

Claim:

The Young Republicans group chat members whose jokes about rape, slavery and Hitler were exposed in a Politico investigation in October 2025 were all college kids.

Rating:

Context

Snopes analyzed the ages and employment histories of all named members of the reported group chat and found most had already graduated from college before the texts were leaked. We have reached out to several individuals and their universities to confirm key details.

On Oct. 14, 2025, a Politico investigation revealed thousands of private text messages between members of Young Republican chapters around the country in which they reportedly made racist and antisemitic remarks. Some 2,900 pages of chats showed conversations among a dozen millennial and Gen Z Republicans from earlier this year, showing their campaign to take control of the national Young Republican organization with a pro-Donald Trump platform. The conversations included jokes about rape, slavery and violence and racial slurs (like the N-word), among other offensive material.

While Republican leaders and the national Young Republican National Federation (YRNF) condemned the messages and called for resignations of the people involved from their local chapter, many others did not.

Numerous conservative figures dismissed the messages, referring to them as conversations between college kids. U.S. Vice President JD Vance called the outrage “pearl clutching” and said the offensive exchanges were just a “college group chat.”  

We looked at the ages, colleges and employment histories of all the individuals named in the Politico report as part of the group chat. We found that the key figures were already college graduates. A few individuals did not have any publicly available information, so we reached out to them over Facebook. We will update this story once we learn more. However, we know the majority of the group was made up of college graduates who were working adults with jobs. As such, we rate the above claim by Republican figures as false.

Below, we have gathered what we know about the members of the Young Republicans group chat:

William Hendrix

William Hendrix, vice chair of the Kansas Young Republicans, was fired from Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office after the texts leaked. In 2021, when he was 20 years old, he unsuccessfully ran for City Council in Topeka, Kansas.

According to an April 2021 profile in the local newspaper, Topeka Capitol-Journal, Hendrix said he was preparing to enroll in Washburn Tech to become a legal office assistant, before transferring to Washburn University where he would study public administration or political science.

Per Washburn Tech’s records, an individual named William Hendrix was part of the National Technical Honor Society, which requires students to graduate at the end of the semester. Hendrix’s name was listed as a “Legal Office Professional” for the spring 2022 class. The name was also listed in Washburn University’s graduates for 2022. Washburn University confirmed to us over email, “A William Hendrix completed the Legal Office Professional program offered at Washburn Institute of Technology from 08/16/2021 to 05/12/2022 as a post-secondary student.” 

Bobby Walker

Walker was vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans. A 2019 report from local paper All Otsego said Walker was an undergraduate at SUNY Albany who was elected as president of the New York Federation of College Republicans. Walker’s photograph in the local news report corresponds with the photograph of Walker in the Politico story.

According to LegiStorm, Walker graduated from SUNY Albany. After the texts leaked, Walker was removed from New York congressional candidate Peter Oberacker’s election campaign.

Peter Giunta

Giunta was chair of the New York State Young Republicans and was chief of staff to Staten Island Assembly Member Mike Reilly, before being fired over the text leaks. 

Giunta was featured in a politics magazine, City and State New York’s “2019 New York City 40 Under 40 Rising Stars.” His profile stated he graduated with a degree in public administration from SUNY Empire State College. At the time, he was still Reilly’s chief of staff. The 2019 feature listed him as 25 years old, making him approximately 30 years old as of this writing.

Anne KayKaty

KayKaty, a New York Young Republican’s national committee member, was fired as a school counselor at the Xaverian Private Day School in Brooklyn, after the texts leaked. Her profile was removed from the school’s website (archived here). In New York State applicants must complete some graduate-level coursework in order to be employed as school counselors.

An individual with the same name was listed among CUNY College of Staten Island’s degree graduates of 2020. A university staffer told us over email that an individual by the name of Anne KayKaty received a bachelor’s of science degree in psychology and was enrolled from fall 2015 to spring 2020. 

KayKaty was involved in the Staten Island Young Republicans Club for several years and served as a former events committee chairperson and club secretary in 2021 and 2024 respectively, according to news reports. 

Joe Maligno

Maligno was general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans, and after the texts leaked, was no longer an employee of the New York State Unified Court System, according to Politico.

According to the National Italian American Bar Association, Maligno was a graduate of Fordham University School of Law and the 2016 recipient of “the Best Oral Advocate Award, along with Best Opening Argument Award during the Trial Advocacy completion,” as well as the president of the Columbian Lawyers Association and Federalist Society.  

Luke Mosiman

Mosiman was the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans Federation, and according to Politico was fired from his job at the Center for Arizona Policy.

Mosiman was an undergraduate at Arizona State University (ASU), where, in 2021, he took the university to court over its COVID-19 mask mandate. Per his LinkedIn and ASU records, he graduated in 2023 with a degree in Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. According to his bio on the Arizona Young Republicans website, he rechartered the Maricopa County Young Republicans. A 2021 Arizona Republic news report photographed Mosiman at an anti-mask protest at ASU, identifying him as “Maricopa County Young Republicans Chairman Luke Mosiman.”

Rachel Hope

Hope is listed as the “Events Chair” on the website of the Arizona Young Republicans Federation. We were unable to confirm her educational background and reached out to her through her Facebook profile. We will update this story if we get more information.

Alex Dwyer

Dwyer was chair of Kansas Young Republicans and was identified as an alumnus of the University of Kansas by the student paper. The University Daily Kansan also noted that Dwyer was a founding member of the university’s Turning Point USA chapter (the conservative advocacy group founded by the recently assassinated Charlie Kirk).

A 2017 Daily Kansan article quoted Dwyer who said the climate of campus activism across the country was too “bitter and hostile.”

Michael Bartels

Bartels’ LinkedIn said he was senior adviser in the office of general counsel within the U.S. Small Business Administration. He was also an advisory chairman of the New York Young Republican Club, according to The New York Times.

An individual by the name of Michael R. Bartels was president of the College Republicans at Providence College and graduated in 2018. We found a LinkedIn account with that name that identified him as a graduate of Fordham University School of Law. The photograph in the LinkedIn profile appears to be the same individual identified by The New York Times as an advisory chairman of the New York Young Republican Club in this 2024 article. We’ve reached out to the New York Young Republican Club to confirm these details and to connect with Bartels. We will update this story accordingly.

Samuel Douglass

Douglass was a state senator from Vermont and the head of the state’s Young Republicans club. He resigned after the text leaks. Vermont local papers identified him as a first-term Republican senator who was 27 years old and a father. According to his bio on his campaign website, he attended Johnson State College in Vermont.

Per his bio, since 2019 Douglass has worked as a suicide counselor, a real estate agent, and a parliamentary consultant.

Brianna Douglass

She was identified by Politico as Douglass’ wife and national committee member of the Vermont Young Republicans. We were unable to determine Brianna’s educational background and reached out to her via her Facebook page. We will update this story accordingly.

In sum, it is clear that all the named individuals were adults and that most of them were employed and/or college graduates. 

Sources

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Beeferman, Jason, and Emily Ngo. “‘It’s Revolting’: More Young Republican Chat Members out of Jobs as Condemnation Intensifies.” Politico, 14 Oct. 2025, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/its-revolting-more-young-republican-chat-members-out-of-jobs-as-condemnation-intensifies-00608791. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.

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