The new, bigoted leader of the College Republicans

Kai Schwemmer, a 23-year-old college student from Utah, was named the new political director for the College Republicans of America (CRA) on March 5. The appointment has drawn criticism because Schwemmer has been an outspoken supporter of white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Devoted fans of Fuentes are known as “groypers.”

According to its website, CRA has over 280 chapters across the country. As political director, Schwemmer will help determine which local candidates CRA will support — an influential position, as campaigns often rely on volunteers from groups like CRA.

In response, Schwemmer has argued that his views moderated during a two-year mission trip from 2023 to 2025. Last week, Schwemmer said he is “not a groyper” and has “made adjustments to become a better disciple of Christ.”

Schwemmer has deleted all of his X posts from before September 2025. But a Popular Information review of Schwemmer’s posts after he returned from his mission shows that he still holds bigoted and extreme views.

In November 2025, in response to a post by former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene related to her stepping down from Congress, Schwemmer wrote that women “generally do not have what it takes to endure the pressures of a public office.”

In two recent posts, Schwemmer compared a person of color to a “proboscis monkey“ and said the “physiognomy” of Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL), who is Black, makes him look “deceitful and suspicious.” Physiognomy, the practice of reading faces to determine a person’s character, has gained popularity among those who believe in “scientific racism.”

Recent posts from Schwemmer suggest that Jewish people are “delusional cosplayers” and that most pedophiles are gay men.

During a recent livestream in which he discussed his CRA appointment and his goals as political director, Schwemmer said, “We are Christian, we are white. That is cool. We’re not going to apologize for that.”

In another stream from last month, Schwemmer called the video President Trump posted to Truth Social depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes “epic.” He went on to say, “Given that apes, gorillas, chimpanzees, monkeys are awesome, this is actually super cool.”

CRA did not respond to a request for comment on this article.

Schwemmer and Fuentes

Schwemmer met Fuentes in 2021 during Fuentes’s “white boy summer” speaking tour, according to a pro-Fuentes documentary released in 2024. In the documentary, Schwemmer said Fuentes “woke me up to immigration” and that he “fell in love” with Fuentes’s movement.

In 2022, Schwemmer was a special guest at Fuentes’s America First Political Action Conference, and he began livestreaming on a platform run by Fuentes. At the time, Schwemmer frequently posted about Fuentes on social media and regularly defended Fuentes when he was criticized for extremist views.

In January 2023, Vice reported that an account apparently belonging to Schwemmer posted a livestream playing the video game Red Dead Redemption 2 with the title “Killing 100 Women in Under 10 Min in RDR2.”

Ben Lorber, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, identified several other older posts by Schwemmer, including ones that glorify the Unabomber and praise a notorious antisemitic author.

The radicalization of the College GOP

Schwemmer’s appointment to CRA leadership comes as several conservative youth organizations have come under fire for extremist views.

University of Florida College Republicans, a CRA member, was disbanded last week after a photo circulating online showed one of its leaders doing a Nazi salute. Schwemmer posted on X, defending the University of Florida College Republicans and blaming “cancel culture” for the club’s disbandment.

A group chat for conservative students at Florida International University, leaked earlier this month, included hundreds of racial slurs and repeated praise for Nazis.