In a contentious meeting that began Saturday afternoon at the Anaheim Marriott and dragged on until the evening, California College Republicans finally elected new leaders. The event was part of the California Republican Party’s fall 2017 convention.

The top of the ticket was hotly contested. Ariana Rowlands, leader of the UC Irvine Republicans, defeated Leesa Danzek, a recent USC graduate and serving chairwoman of the California College Republicans. Rowlands, 20, is a political science major from Ladera Ranch who frequently writes for conservative online publications.

The vote capped a stormy session during which Danzek, who was presiding officer, struggled to retain control of a restive room of more than 150 student Republicans, many of whom passionately supported her rival. She was challenged several times by Rowlands and others, who questioned many decisions Danzek had made and pointed out that they contravened Robert’s Rules of Order. Danzek ordered Rowlands to leave the meeting at one point. She refused, rallying her followers to stand with her.

The bad blood goes back at least to April, when an attempted vote dissolved into debates about parliamentary procedures and ended with 150 students being removed from a Double Tree Hotel ballroom in San Jose. The tension points to a schism within the organization that to some degree mirrors what’s happening within the Republican party at large. Rowlands has described her faction, Rebuild CCR, as a grassroots movement, and Danzek’s constituency, Thrive CCR, as members of a comfortable status quo.

The event in Anaheim on Saturday was tightly controlled even before it began. At one point, the media was banned from covering the meeting live, but it was lifted shortly after a viral tweet about the decision was posted around 3:30 p.m. by Politico reporter Carla Marinucci. Non-voting CCR delegates complained that they would not be allowed to attend the meeting as observers. And Paula Prizio, past president of the Orange County Federation of Republican Women, said she was ordered out of the ballroom where the meeting would be held after she offered to give Danzek some advice.

“It’s very disappointing that it’s so disorganized, but we’re going to get there,” Prizio said. “This is just a little bump in the road.”

Chris Boyle, 27, a Cal State Fullerton student, said his biggest beef with the session was “the abuse of the process. If they just let people vote and let it be done with then we could all go home. Unfortunately they’re dragging this out for personal gain. They’re being extremely short-sighted. I think people who are bending the rules in their favor have really lost sight of what it really means to be a conservative, they’ve lost sight of their values.”

After all the votes for CCR regional officers were counted, Danzek made a brief statement and dismissed the crowd.

But the evening wasn’t over. Rowlands, in her capacity as the new CCR leader, tried to re-convene the meeting. Though she had won, she felt that her opponent had unfairly tilted the table in favor of her followers for many of the elected positions.

“They’re trying to pack the board so I can’t do anything,” Rowlands said. “So many procedures and motions that I made (Danzek) ignored unlawfully. So I am trying to correct those wrongs. I’m trying to fight for my teammates who were robbed of positions they rightfully deserved. They would have gotten the votes had they been allowed to.”

After 8 p.m., the ballroom still hadn’t cleared, though it looked as if Rowlands wasn’t going to get her way. The evening produced only one certainty: under Rowlands, there’ll be more stormy meetings ahead for California College Republicans.