Voters and the presidential election - Centre County

Penn State College Republican Luke Garlicki takes part in a phone bank at the HUB-Robeson Center at University Park. Visiting Centre County, Pa. to see what issues voters care abut that could influence the winner of the presidential election, Wednesday, September 14, 2016. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

STATE COLLEGE -- Think Republican lawmakers have it tough, navigating the precarious middle path between Donald Trump and #NeverTrump?

Try being a College Republican.

Less than two months into the semester, the insular world of Penn State student politics has been rocked by endorsement drama, a leak of bawdy and offensive chat messages, 11th-hour squabbling over debates and a series of resignations.

"It's sad that this is our first election," said Reagan McCarthy, a fresh-faced 19-year-old in black rim glasses who took a few minutes off from the phone bank to speak her mind.

Donald Trump, she said, "was not my first, second, third or fourth choice but I guess he's what the people wanted." Voting for Hillary Clinton, however, is anathema to a young woman whose lodestar is Ronald Reagan.

Sitting beside her, the president of Penn State's student GOP can't bring himself to rule Clinton out.

"So many people are pissed off," Michael Straw said of his fellow young conservatives. "It's their first presidential election and this is what they have to choose from? How many people are going to want to come back in 2020 and vote for another pack of fools?"

Straw, a Russian-born U.S. citizen who proudly wears a rainbow flag lapel pin, said Trump's apparent embrace -- or at least tolerance -- of LGBT rights is beside the point. The candidate, he said, disqualified himself through his ignorance on economic and national security issues, as well as his comments about immigrants, women and other minority groups.

Of course, this powwow at Penn State's HUB student center took place before the worst of the sophomoric rancor that has dominated the presidential race came to Happy Valley.

THE RIFT

In August, the student GOP decided -- for the first time in its 76-year history on campus -- not to endorse the GOP's presidential nominee. An informal survey taken after the Republican National Convention found that 72 percent of its members didn't support Trump. They would, however, ramp up volunteer efforts in support of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and other Republican candidates in down-ballot races.

The decision wasn't intended to divide the historically close-knit group.

"Anyone who votes Republican, in the end, is a friend of mine," Straw, 21, explained. "Just because this organization doesn't support Donald Trump doesn't mean it's not a home for you."

Of course, the College Republicans -- like their national counterparts -- were taking a calculated risk, even if they didn't fully grasp it at the time. Their ambivalence toward Trump happens to be shared by Toomey, who faces a tough reelection bid against Democrat Katie McGinty.

As recently as Monday, Toomey explained his logic to a room of journalists and lobbyists at a Harrisburg Press Club luncheon. For the record, Pennsylvania's incumbent senator said, he still wasn't endorsing Trump.

He wasn't renouncing him, either.

"Hillary Clinton is completely unacceptable to me. In fact, you could say, she is irredeemably unacceptable," Toomey said, in a cheeky nod to her "basket of deplorables" gaffe.

Having Trump in the White House, the senator said, in his professorial lilt, would allow Republicans to make progress on key policy objectives like repealing the Affordable Care Act, reinstating sanctions on Iran and enacting tax reforms.

"But I have to weigh that against some of the outrageous and offensive things that he has said," Toomey continued, "including several things I criticized at the time he said them . . . I'm taking my time to come to a decision."

Pat Toomey has walked a fine line between not publicly endorsing Donald Trump and not outright rejecting him, either. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

In the world of Beltway politics, Toomey risks alienating passionate Trump supporters who've cottoned to the businessman's freewheeling persona, nativist leanings and laissez-faire approach to certain social issues.

At Penn State, the College Republicans risk splintering what has historically been a small group. At last count, the organization has about 50 active members, although they expected that number to grow as Election Day neared.

A relatively new student group -- We Are for Trump Penn State, later renamed the Bull Moose Party -- immediately released its own statement rebuking the student GOP for its non-endorsement. The pro-Trump contingent included former College Republicans who severed ties with the group.

"There are quite a few Trumpsters who are angry at the College Republicans and some College Republicans who can't stand Donald Trump," said Dominic DeCinti, a 19-year-old Enola native who serves as the Trump group's secretary. "But I'm not going to lay into it," he added. "I don't think it's as bad as it seems."

DeCinti said he believed Trump and his supporters get a bad rap.

For all of his bluster, Trump cuts through the hypocrisy of other recent Republicans presidential nominees. He speaks to "normal people," he said. That gets mistaken for bigotry but it doesn't reflect who Trump really is.

"I never found Donald Trump's language offensive," he said. "There are certain things he's said that are wrong, but it's also media spin."

The Trump group, DeCinti said, has fought hard against the negative stereotypes that surround Trump supporters. Its members, for example, show up to meetings and student debates in suits, not unlike the College Republicans.

"We don't want that look -- jean shorts and the best shirt without a stain on it -- of Trump supporters," he said.

Within 24 hours of that conversation, the two student groups would be at the center of a decidedly Trumpian drama involving leaked private messages containing bigoted and vulgar material.

THE LEAK

An anonymous Twitter account called "ActOfOursBringShame" -- a lyric from Penn State's school song -- quietly posted a series of black-and-white screenshots of private chat exchanges for several days before the images went viral in the insular world of student politics. It took more than a week for one of the student media organizations to take notice and it's slowly gathered steam from there.

The chats were taken from GroupMe, a popular messaging app among younger millennials, with titles like "CUCKlidge Republicans" and "Students For Harambe." The latter title refers to an Internet meme centered around the killing of a zoo gorilla that has taken on an increasingly racist undercurrent via social media.

Participants with names like "Jihadist Hunter" and "#BringBackHarambe" bemoaned the College Republicans' non-endorsement in a series of increasingly explicit exchanges.

"I'm [expletive] PISSED tonight," one participant said.

"Yeah, but by not endorsing Trump they are indirectly helping Hillary," another replied. "[In other words], they only help Hillary."

The vitriol inevitably turned to Straw, the student GOP president. One participant shared a photo taken of Straw, apparently without his knowledge, while he sat at a restaurant on campus.

"CR president chilling at fiddle head. Def gay," wrote one participant.

Samples of the leaked GroupMe chats that included members of the pro-Trump Bull Moose Party student group at Pennsylvania State University.

In another exchange, one of the participants said, "I legitimately want to punch the CR president straight in the face."

Elsewhere in the string, participants joked about kidnapping and throwing Straw off one of the many construction cranes that tower over the campus.

One participant took a more nuanced stance: "He's a homosexual. Don't hate on his sexuality. Hate on his cultural-Marxism tainted ideology."

Other chat threads included disparaging remarks about LGBT and other minorities. In one exchange, a participant shared an image of a naked woman. "[Expletive] wrong group me," the sender wrote, then followed: "Wait nvm this is the trump group me I was right originally."

Several sources familiar with the chat thread and the two groups identified screen names and avatar images as associated with members of the Trump group. DeCinti wasn't implicated, the sources said, but several other ranking members were.

To date, the Twitter account used to leak the chats has just 24 followers, but that was enough to ignite the fires of indignation and speculation on Facebook and in the coffee shops of State College.

THE FLACK

The slow-moving scandal caught Chris Baker, the Trump group's 22-year-old director of communications, by surprise.

Baker doesn't quite fit the Trump voter mold: He's carefully groomed with rail-straight posture. He delivers polished answers with the ease of a seasoned Capitol Hill flack. In the spring, he interned for a Democratic candidate and registered as Republican so he could vote for Donald Trump, the only candidate Baker believes will stand up against lobbyists and special interests. When it came to the Senate race, he wrote in "butt cheek" due to his deep-seated mistrust of Toomey's investment banker past.

Now a senior, he attended both College Democrat and Republican meetings but didn't find his place in the Penn State political ecosystem until he tried the Trump group on for size.

"After meetings with the other groups, I knew this isn't something I support because they both blindly follow the rhetoric that comes out of their parties," he said.

In recent months, he's fielded interviews from Fox News, NPR and the BBC for segments on young Trump supporters. On campus, the Trump group developed an iPhone app to coordinate volunteers, get their message out and -- in Baker's words -- "present a united front."

Voters and the presidential election - Centre County 17 Gallery: Voters and the presidential election - Centre County

From the start, Baker said he advised his fellow Trumpsters not to use GroupMe. If the headline-grabbing hacks at the national level taught him anything, it was that the Internet is written in ink -- not pencil -- and nothing is ever 100-percent secure.

"If you say anything out of line, people could sneak in and try to use it against us," he remembers telling the group.

That fear was soon realized.

Baker said he believes the leak must have originated with one of the Democratic groups on campus. One of the screenshots features a drop-down alert--likely a text message--with the words: "We will walk there from the dems meeting."

Trump supporters already have a difficult enough time on campus. The first time Baker wore his red "Make American Great Again" hat, he said, a random stranger snatched it from his head and confronted him with it. He snatched it back and kept walking.

"Many people hate who I am because of the color of my hat," he said.

At least once a month, Baker heads down to the HUB with a sign: "Don't hate me. Talk to me." He was nervous at first, but he's gotten more comfortable walking up to strangers -- and having strangers walk up to him -- to talk Trump.

"These are real conversations, not abrasive conversations," he said. "Once you start doing that, other people start joining in. Maybe you won't convince everyone, but there's always that one where you can change their mind."

Now, Baker finds himself in the position of defending a group that's quickly becoming an even greater pariah on campus.

THE FALLOUT

Baker said he was able to convince several student reporters that there was no story. After all, he argued, the GroupMe chat strings weren't officially sanctioned and contained only a handful of his organization's members. He personally wasn't involved, he said, and doesn't use GroupMe at all.

But even the most persuasive political flack can keep the lid on a story for only so long.

First, a student blogger wrote about it and then a student news website picked it up in the context of this week's campus debates. As the GroupMe chats spread across social media, the images prompted the Penn State Speech and Debate Society to announce that it would no longer host or moderate its debate between the pro-Trump and a pro-Clinton groups.

"We do not believe moderating a debate between these two organizations will establish common ground nor provide an environment for intelligent and open debate," the debate society's student leaders said, in a written statement.

Straw initially deferred comment until his fellow College Republican student leaders had a chance to vote on a public statement. The board ultimately voted not to publicly criticize the Trump group as the Democratic groups and the debate society had.

The issue, Straw said, is not a political one.

"Me being a Republican or a Democrat wouldn't have changed anything," he said Thursday night. "They would've have said the same things regardless but it makes me wonder how they act in public toward other people with my sexuality and other minority groups, as well."

Representatives from the Clinton and Trump groups would eventually take the debate stage, albeit after much behind-the-scenes politicking. Baker said he was confronted by several members of the Democratic groups.

"They were trying to force me, the spokesperson, to admit this private conversation reflects my viewpoints," he said. "They said, 'if you don't do this, we won't have the debate.'"

But the people were already there and time was wasting. On stage, the two sides kept relatively mum about the GroupMe chats.

By Thursday, however, the slow-simmering furor had taken its toll on the Trump group. That morning, two board members who had participated in the GroupMe chats called Baker to announce their resignations.

Neither member could be reached for comment, although requests were submitted through intermediaries.

Baker said he doesn't believe they should have stepped down, but there was nothing he could do. The leak, he said, raises serious questions about privacy -- although he demurred when asked what he thinks about Trump's encouragement of hacks against Clinton.

"(The Democrats) are taking these leaks and trying to tear me down as a Trump supporter," he said. "I tell them, 'let me see your phone, go through your GroupMe's and see if there's anything you won't want to see on Facebook'."

THE CAMPAIGN

So far, neither the original chat messages nor the leak has resulted in any disciplinary action by the university.

"It's important to note that because this was initially done via private channels," said spokesperson Lisa M. Powers, in a written statement, "there is no way for us to know the identities of the individuals involved, or even to know whether they are students or are affiliated with the student group in question."

The university -- like the students and the national GOP leaders -- has its own delicate balance to strike. According to Powers, it has reached out to Straw and is willing to facilitate a conversation between the various parties.

"Free expression is protected by the Constitution, even when we strongly disagree with the opinions expressed," Powers wrote. "We are disappointed with the lack of civility in this instance. We urge everyone to engage in the political process thoughtfully and respectfully."

Straw said he understands and respects why the university won't discipline the individuals who've been implicated in the GroupMe chats. But he wishes it would take a more unequivocal public stance against hate speech.

"Everyone has the right to freedom of speech, but they should condemn what was said. They need to send a message that this should not be the kind of speech students engage in," he said.

Members of the Penn State College Republicans phone bank at the HUB-Robeson Center at University Park.

Both the College Republicans and the pro-Trump Bull Moose Party are moving on with their separate get-out-the-vote efforts, although the 40-member Trump group hasn't limited itself to down-ballot races.

"We are the counter-movement," DeCinti said, of the larger universe of Trump supporters. "In the '60s, the counterculture was free love and grass. Now, conservatism is the counterculture."

DeCinti said he's troubled by some of Trump's public statements -- particularly his feud with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly -- but he was drawn to the candidate's no-nonsense persona and "America first" policies on foreign trade and limiting immigration.

"I believe America is the greatest nation in the world and the greatest civilization there will ever be," he said. "I believe we've been taken down a bad path, but we can turn it around."

Trump, DeCinti said, is a breath of fresh air after a succession of mediocre GOP presidential tickets.

"The Republican Party is constantly shooting themselves in the foot with poor candidates who, on an intellectual level, believe they have the high ground," he said, "but don't have standing with normal people."

McCarthy and Straw, the College Republicans, don't blame any national politician for the stance he or she takes on Trump.

"With Toomey, it's a double-edged sword," McCarthy said. "If you endorse Trump, sure, you make Trump voters happy, but his base is not Trump supporters. Whatever he does, he'll receive criticism."

For his own part, Straw -- ever the aspiring politician -- said he's still making up his mind between possible Trump alternatives. For that reason alone, he said, he can't judge the deliberations of other Republicans.

"A lot of politicians don't need to make a comment on him," he said. "They're in their own bubbles. They have their own races to run, they're distancing themselves from him and it's every individual's right to do so.

"But it is clear both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are major party candidates who can't get their major parties to like them."