GOP-Run Florida University Group Chat Devolved Into Racism and Talk of Violence

Leaked chats from a Republican group at a Florida college contain hundreds of uses of the n-word and frequent references to Nazi Germany, new reporting from The Miami Herald has revealed.

The group chat was started by Miami-Dade Republican Party Secretary Abel Carvajal last fall to promote Republican-aligned events at Florida International University (FIU). But within just a few weeks, the Whatsapp group was rife with racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and homophobic slurs.

Leaked conversations from the WhatsApp group that were provided to the Herald show participants using the n-word more than 400 times and repeatedly expressing a desire to violently attack Black people. Nazi politics, including praise for Adolf Hitler, appeared so regularly that at one point, the group was renamed in honor of a “Nazi Heaven.”

Dariel Gonzalez, a former FIU College Republicans’ recruitment chair, was a frequent participant in the chat.

“Ew you had colored professors?!” Gonzalez wrote in response to a message from a person who discussed Black faculty. “I reguse [sic] to be indoctrinated by the coloreds.”

“You can f–k all the [k-word] you want,” he said in another chat, using a slur to refer to Jewish people. “Just don’t marry them and procreate.”

Turning Point USA FIU chapter president Ian Valdes, who was also involved in the chats, responded to that advice affirmatively. “I would def not marry a Jew,” he wrote.

Valdes frequently changed the name of the chat group; at one point, the name of the group was a reference to “Agartha,” a mythical white nationalist civilization promoted by Nazi Germany leader Heinrich Himmler.

The term “is not something you would know about unless you had spent a considerable amount of time in white supremacist circles,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told the Herald.

Gonzalez also discussed violence against Black people, referring to the concept in the chat as “Total Negro Death.” Another member of the group listed ways to kill Black people, including “crucifying, dissecting, and beheading them.”

Members also chatted about immigration policy, advocating for a white nationalist scheme to prevent non-white immigrants from entering the U.S.

“We need to have a moratorium on immigration temporarily unless it’s someone from a first world country. … I obviously mean whites,” Valdes said at one point.

Both Gonzalez and Valdes recognized the repugnant nature of their chats. After Gonzalez referred to a woman the group was discussing as a “half-breed” and a “mongrel,” Valdez seemingly laughed it off, but acknowledged the terms could get them in trouble.

“If this chat gets leaked we’re so cooked lmao,” Valdes wrote.

Confronted by a reporter from the Herald about the chats, Abel Carvajal, the current secretary of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County and the person who started the chat, claimed ignorance about the conversations taking place.

“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal said, referring to a message the reporter had shown him. “I guess, to an extent, I bear some responsibility. … I’m at a loss for words.”

However, the WhatsApp logs show Carvajal wasn’t as absent as he claims, as he deleted 14 messages from others in the group and 42 of his own — moves he said were necessary for “decluttering the chat.” Republican events sponsored by the county party were also regularly promoted within the chat.

Florida International University (FIU) is investigating the chat logs for potential cases of discrimination. However, this isn’t the first time the university has seen a problem like this — in 2018, the university’s Turning Point USA chapter’s chat logs were also leaked, revealing jokes about rape, cartoons featuring sex with children, and discussions of racism and antisemitism.

Some Republicans in the state have spoken out against the chats.

“We strongly condemn and find despicable the vile and unacceptable language that has been discovered,” read a joint statement from Florida Republican state Senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia, and Ana Maria Rodriguez.

Critics have warned that the uptick in violent and racist language by young GOP activists may be a byproduct of Republicans’ efforts to deemphasize lessons on racism in the U.S., such as Florida’s “Stop WOKE Act” mandated in 2022.

“With the legislation that’s being passed in different states, including here in Florida — and you could argue even with some of them Trump executive orders about race he signed immediately after being sworn into office — I think it’s sending a signal that you don’t have to hide your racism anymore,” said University of Florida political scientist Sharon Austin.

The revelations come less than half a year after disturbing chat logs came to light from members of the Young Republicans in several states. Those chats included calls for people they disagreed with to be put in gas chambers, numerous racist, homophobic, and pro-Nazi statements, and “jokes” about driving people to suicide.

When the GOP faced backlash for the reprehensible messages, several high-profile Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, dismissed the messages as mistakes by “kids,” despite members of that chat being between 24 and 35 years old.

“Don’t focus on what kids say in group chats,” Vance said in an interview around that time. “The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes. Like, that’s what kids do, and I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke — telling a very offensive, stupid joke — is cause to ruin their lives.”