History

CCR was founded on August 29, 1963 by Randolph Siefkin, Harold Phillips, William Nielsen, William Dillon, and Pete Wilson (who went on to serve as a US Senator from 1983-1991 and Governor of California from 1991-1999).

For more information, read the history tab, list of previous chairmen tab, or look at the archive of past administrations below.

History

Founding and Early History

Founding and Early History
CCR began with 1,800 members on August 29, 1963 — founded by Randolph Siefkin, Harold Phillips, William Nielsen, William Dillon, and Pete Wilson (who went on to serve as a US Senator from 1983 to 1991 and Governor of California from 1991 to 1999).

The 1963 mission statement of CCR read:

The specific and primary purposes for which this corporation is formed are to support the Republican party, to provide pleasure and recreation for the members, to encourage constructive thinking among young people and the development of their interest in good government, and to unite young people in the spirit of good fellowship to achieve these objectives.

CCR was formed as a break-off group of the California Young Republican College Federation, also known as the California College Federation of Young Republicans, following election disputes in 1962 and 1963. In 1962, the moderates and conservatives violently clashed, with Walter Driver of the conservatives stating six sergeant-at-arms "banged my head into a chair and my body into a wall."

Harold Phillips of the moderates ultimately prevailed in the election as chair.

In 1963, competing conventions of a conservative wing and a moderate wing each elected new chairmen. Trent Devenney and Randy Siefkin each claimed legitimacy, with the California Young Republicans organization — at the time the parent organization of the college federation — set to recognize Devenney. At the same time, nationally, College Republican groups began to break off from the Young Republican groups, where one would service students and the other would service young adults. Siefkin helped lead this split in California, taking his moderate wing of students with him to form CCR. CCR would go on to charter with the College Republican National Committee (CRNC) (which it later separated from in 2019) after it broke off from the Young Republican National Federation. The California Young Republican College Federation continued to exist as part of the California Young Republicans and the Young Republican National Federation until 1969, when they merged with CCR in a unity election. The unification was supported and partially brokered by then-Governor Ronald Reagan.

Reagan enjoyed and worked closely with the youth — among them CCR members — during his campaigns and tenure. In 1988, he described CCR as "A group I take a kind of personal interest in..."

CCR also earned the admiration and attention of another President, Gerald Ford. In 1967, then-House Minority Leader Ford attended the annual CCR convention in Santa Barbara as the keynote speaker. He concluded with the following:

We must build the Republican Party ... We can do that if college Republicans here and throughout the Nation will rise to the responsibility that is theirs--the challenge to go out into the wilderness of young Democrats and come back with some scalps. The future of the Republican Party, ladies and gentlemen, is in your hands.

CCR conventions have featured a number of notable speakers over the years, including Gov. Pete Wilson, Gov. George Deukmejian, Lt. Gov. Edwin Reinecke, Lt. Gov. Mike Curb, Rep. Barry Goldwater Jr., Milo Yiannopoulos, Amb. Richard Grenell, Rep. Paul Gosar, and many others.

1963 was not the only time CCR faced competing conventions and claims of legitimacy. In 1987, Fred Whitaker (who went on to serve as Chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County) and Jim Michalski ran for chairman. Whitaker, unable to mount enough delegates to win the election, led a walkout at the 1987 election, hoping to break quorum. However, not enough delegates left with Whitaker, and the election proceeded with a vote for Michalski. Whitaker, meanwhile, convened his own convention with the delegates that followed him, where they elected him as chairman. This triggered a crisis over the rightful Chairman of CCR.

Whitaker was backed by CRNC Chairman Stockton Reeves, and Michalski was backed by the California Republican Party. The state party stepped in with, according to the San Francisco Examiner, "a private meeting trying to resolve a dispute between two college Republican groups." This led to party leadership, including CAGOP Chairman Bob Naylor, missing a vote of the party convention calling for the prosecution of the San Francisco AIDS foundation. The state party eventually caved to the CRNC and agreed to recognize both groups as equal and legitimate. They finally merged again in 1988, following a unity convention. In an interview with the Orange County Register, Whitaker said: "'I was running for chairman of the state College Republicans and we split into two organizations,' ... A 'unity convention' followed and both groups reunited a year later..." Whitaker was defeated by Michalski in the unity convention rematch election.

Modern History
Prior to the election of President Trump in 2016, the California College Republicans had not had a contested election in nearly a decade. Trump's election sparked a resurgence of youth activism in California, which led to Ariana Rowlands' involvement in the College Republicans. In 2017, Rowlands built a socially conservative and pro-Trump coalition to contest the CCR heir apparent, Vice-chair Leesa Danzek, for the position of chairman. Danzek and her faction were considered the moderate-wing of CCR.

The 2017 convention was derailed before voting began, with the OC Register summarizing the events:

Hours-long debates on parliamentary procedures and questions about who could and couldn’t vote ended with student organizers booting more than 150 delegates from a Double Tree Hotel ballroom in San Jose, where the election was being held, into a hallway. The meeting dissolved into heated debates over procedures and by the time some delegates were allowed to return, it was too late. Hotel staff said it was time to go.

The CCR Convention was reconvened in October 2017 at the California Republican Party Fall Convention. By that point, Leesa Danzek had assumed the chairmanship following Ivy Allen's resignation in August. At the meeting, the LA Times reported that "[M]embers accused Danzek of using her influence over the state organization to withhold information about the election and improperly disqualify some students from voting"

Despite the tensions, Rowlands emerged the victor by a vote of 88–64.

Rowlands remained popular enough to win reelection in 2018, where she staged the largest attended CCR convention in modern history. She was listed as one of Washington Examiner's "30 Under 30," and brought renewed media attention to CCR from "FOX News, ABC 7 and The Daily Ledger ... Breitbart News ... TIME..."

However, she also faced scandal in her second term. Rowlands and her successor, Kimo Gandall, were accused of allegedly removing CCR members and chapters they disliked via the Judicial Board case Gandall et al. v Morcott et al, which found two members guilty of violating the CCR constitution and stripped their voting rights. According to the Judicial case in question, no further action was taken, and the members and chapters in question remained part of CCR. The case order read:

"[O]rder (1) does not imply formal expulsion from the California College Republicans ... order (3) does not imply the permanent forced dechartering of the defendants’ respective chapters ... [T]o regain the ability to send delegates to the annual convention ... the members may remove the defendants from the presidency of their respective chapters, or (2) the members may amend their governing documents to legally appropriate the power to petition CCR away from the president and to some other member of their chapter as they see fit."

However, dissatisfaction with Rowlands led to another contested election in 2019. Kimo Gandall, backed by Rowlands, and Matt Ronnau each built slates of candidates and announced their intention to run for the CCR Executive Board. Prior to the 2019 election, Ronnau and his slate dropped out of the race and led a push for 10 clubs to decharter, or disassociate, from CCR instead of attending and running in the election. In the press release announcing the mass decharter, the clubs charged that CCR was "Failing to address ... repeated concerns," yet the clubs in question did not appear at the election or introduce legislation to amend CCR's constitution. Gandall was elected chairman.

Most of the 10 clubs that left went on to form a new organization, the California Federation of College Republicans (CFCR). CFCR is regarded as "an establishment GOP group that broke away from the more pro-Trump California College Republicans in 2019." CCR, meanwhile, "describe themselves as the 'Trump wing of the GOP'" — and continuing Rowlands' socially conservative legacy.

CCR maintains a supermajority of College Republican clubs in California as of 2021.

The Administrations of Gandall's successor, Nick Ortiz, and Ortiz's successor, Will Donahue, have been credited with getting the organization verified on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram — the first state College Republican organization in the country to do so — and growing social media following to that of the largest out of any other state College Republican organization on Facebook and Instagram (as of 2021).

Independence from CRNC
The California College Republicans are an independent organization, unaffiliated with the College Republican National Committee (CRNC), as of 2019. According to a press release from CCR, the California Federation of College Republicans (CFCR), "an establishment" splinter group from the "pro-Trump" CCR, petitioned the CRNC to revoke CCR's charter. The statement reads:

On Saturday, July 13th, despite Gandall agreeing to many of the terms for mediation, the CRNC ruled that CCR was to be “dechartered." ... Gandall strongly objected ... but his appeals were rejected without reason. “Despite my objections in Committee under my right to a point of order, the arbitrator illegally awarded CFCR the charter. But this isn’t allowed in the Bylaws,” said Kimo Gandall, Chairman of the California College Republicans. “CRNC has a secret constitution that is not public,” continued Gandall, “and once I leaked it, I found that there were deep discrepancies. §2(5)(b)"

CCR is not the only organization that is independent from the CRNC. In 2021, the CRNC controversially stripped the voting rights of several state federations that backed the election of Judah Waxelbaum over Courtney Britt for CRNC Chairman. Among those disqualified were Texas, New York, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Puerto Rico, who all voted to secede following Britt's election. The action's of the CRNC earned condemnation and words of support for the allegedly disenfranchised states from the New York, Connecticut, Arizona, and Arkansas Republican parties, as well as from Elise Stefanik, George P. Bush, John Boozman, and more.

List of Chairmen of CCR

Term	Chairman	#
1963-1964	Randy Siefkin	1
1964-1965	William Dillon	2
1965	Dave Jackson	3
1965-1966	Grace Jordan*	4
1966-1967	Larry Burgess	5
1967-1968	Richard Rashman	6
1968-1969	Jim Gilam	7
1969-1970	Michael Khul	8
1970-?	James G. McKinney	9
?-1971	Richard Ryckof	10
1971-1972	Frank J. Crosetti	11
1972-1973	Jim Straw	12
1973-1974	David C. Lorenzen	13
1974-1975	Bill Dohr	14
1975-1976	Frank Harding	15
1976-1977	Kyle Smith	16
1977-1978	Audrey Merkin	17
1978-1979	Britta Zwald?	18
1979-1980	Hunt Braly	19
1980-1981	Unknown	20
1981-1982	Unknown	21
1982-1983	Shawn C. Moore	22
1983	Lori Cummings	23
1983-1984	Timothy Beer	24
1984-1985	Chet Beiler?	25
1985-1986	Scott Adamson	26
1986-1987	Jim Arnone	27
1987-1988	Fred Whitaker**	28
1987-1989	Jim Michalski**	29
1989-1991	Thomas Hudson	30
1991-1992	Jonathan Gear	31
1992-1993	Sean Allen	32
1993-1994	William Pedranti	33
1994-1995	Ted Soojian	34
1995-1996	Rezwan Pavri	35
1996-1997	Charles Smith	36
1997-1998	Jason Steele	37
1998-1999	MacLane Key	38
1999-2000	Patrick Isherwood	39
2000-2001	Mike Sannella	40
2001-2003	Erik W. Caldwell	41
2003-2005	Michael P. Davidson	42
2005-2006	Stephen J. Puetz	43
2006-2007	Mason J. Harrison	44
2007-2008	Ryan M. Clumpner	45
2008-2009	Cheyenne Steel***	46
2009-2011	Michael Antonopoulos	47
2011-2012	Clinton Soffer	48
2012-2013	Matthew Donnellan	49
2013-2014	Nithin Matthew	50
2014-2015	Shawn Lewis	51
2015-2016	Jere Ford	52
2016-2017	Ivy Allen	53
2017	Leesa Danzek	54
2017-2019	Ariana Rowlands	55
2019-2020	Kimo Gandall	56
2020-2021	Nick Ortiz	57
2021-	Will Donahue	58

*Grace Jordan was CCR's first black and first female Chair.
**Michalski and Whitaker were Chairs of competing wings of CCR at the same time. Michalski won the '88 rematch election.
***Cheyenne Steel is the daughter of RNC Committeeman Shawn Steel and Congresswoman Michelle Steel.
****Nick Ortiz was the first publicly gay chair of CCR. Ortiz rejected socially liberal values typically associated with the LGBT community and led a socially conservative administration, primarily focused on pro-life issues.

Below you will find a historical archive of past CCR administrations in an effort to honor and learn from them. Formed by Communications Director Dylan Martin in 2019, the archive is maintained by the Communications Office and the Marketing Committee. Full history prior to 2017 is unknown, but filled in to the best of CCR’s knowledge. Click on an administration to learn more.