The New York Young Republican Club


The New York Young Republican Club is an organization for members of the Republican Party of the United States between the ages of 18 and 40 in New York City. The New York Young Republican Club is the oldest and largest chapter in the United States, founded in 1911 with predecessor organizations going back to 1856. The Club is affiliated with and officially recognized by the New York State Young Republicans and the Young Republican National Federation, as well as the county, state, and national Republican committees.

History

In the Spring of 1911, thirty-two young men, led by a young Manhattan lawyer Benjamin M. Day, along with, Philip J. McCook, Lloyd Carpenter Griscom, Frederick Paul Keppel, Henry W. Goddard, Edward R. Finch, Alfred Conkling Coxe Jr., and Albert S. Bard noted the lack of any Republican association especially appealing to younger Republicans in New York City. They sought a forum for expressing views which might on occasion be at variance with those of the party leaders as expressed in the local assembly district Clubs and in The Republican Club of the City of New York. In order to work within and for the Republican Party, yet be free to criticize party policies and leaders and to champion candidates and causes independent of organization control when the occasion so warranted, these young men formed the New York Young Republican Club in April 1911. This was an offshoot of the earlier New York Young Men’s Republican Club which was founded in 1879, which itself was a descendant of the even earlier New York Young Men’s Republican Union founded in 1856.
The Club’s first public appearance was a dinner held in December, 1911. The guest of honor was the President of the United States, William Howard Taft, and the principal speaker was Idaho Senator William Borah. The Club’s auspicious debut was attended by the leading politicians and office-holders of the day and was well publicized.
On February 8, 1912, the New York Young Republican Club, Inc. filed for a Certificate of Incorporation with the Secretary of State with the following objectives:
“To promote and maintain the principles of the Republican Party; to foster within the Republican Party and make practical in service of the municipality, state and nation, the idealism characteristic of youth; to correct in our own party that tendency of all parties to make organization an end rather than a means; to develop sound principle and public spirit in party politics; to promote honest and fair electoral methods, to the end that the expression of the popular will by whatever party or body, shall be as free, untrammeled and equal as possible; to resist and expose political corruption; to advocate merit rather than partisan service as entitling to public office; to watch legislation and to encourage public attention to and efficiently criticize the conduct of government.”

Leadership