Last Updated on June 15, 2020
College Republican National Treasurer Ty Seymour has liked a tweet by a Biden supporter describing Catholicism as an “oppressive religious institution”.
“Yo buddy. I’m pro-2A, a supporter of my wonderful GOP Governor Holcomb, pro-strong military. You don’t have to like oppressive religious institutions to be center right,” wrote Bric Butler, a local bureaucrat who identifies on his Twitter as a supporter of Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden.
https://twitter.com/BricButler/status/1272608802135773184
Seymour is a top member of the executive board of the College Republican National Committee (CRNC), the official student wing of the Republican Party. As part of this role as Treasurer, he has control over the College Republicans’ expenses. The CRNC raises millions of dollars annually from conservative donors who are unaware of its anti-Trump leadership, and believe that their money is going towards supporting the Republican Party on campus.
READ MORE: College Republican National Treasurer Wants Trump To Lose
College Republicans chapters were disappointed by Seymour’s apparent support for anti-Catholic sentiments.
“There are thousands of Catholic and other Christian College Republicans scattered across dozens if not hundreds of chapters across the country. I don’t think they would feel fairly represented by a CRNC executive board that considers their foundational institutions ‘oppressive’,” wrote the San Diego State University (SDSU) College Republicans in a statement responding to Seymour on Twitter.
Three other College Republican chapters – the Notre Dame University College Republicans, the Bruin Republicans at UCLA, and the Santa Clara University College Republicans – liked the tweet by the SDSU chapter.
READ MORE: Young Republicans To Trump: Put U.S. Jobs First And End H-1B, OPT
A substantial plurality of Latino Americans are Catholic, with statistics from Pew indicating 48% identify with the Church. Only 20% of Latinos are non-religious, while 25% are Protestant. Anti-Catholic rhetoric from prominent party officials is therefore likely to undermine Republican efforts to reach out to Latino voters in the months prior to the election.
The National File previously revealed that Seymour supports Biden over Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and is openly hoping that Trump loses the election. This raises the question as to whether Seymour has the best interests of the Republican Party at heart, or is in fact seeking to undermine it from within.
