Red Wave on College Campuses: CCR Gains 500 Members in First Week Back to School

College students started school in August at Cal State and community colleges across California, and our College Republican chapters are already experiencing a massive surge in new member sign ups!

In fact, chapters have reported over 500 new members — and the organization even received 7 new chapter start-up requests!

“We have not seen this level of enthusiasm in our ranks since 2016, which we considered a ‘Trump Effect’ on enthusiasm — and it looks like we’re seeing that again,” said Martin Bertao, Chairman of the California College Republicans (CCR).

CCR’s membership bump in 2017 led to a surge in deployments for candidates and activism events across the state — and one of the organization’s highest attended annual conventions in modern history, with over 220 attendees.

Here's an report of CCR’s 2024 numbers on the ground in the first week back to school:

• UC Berkeley: 223 new members
• College of Sequoias: 91 new members
• Cal State Fullerton: 76 new members
• Pepperdine: 60 new members
• Loyola Marymount: 52 new members
• New Chapter Launched: College of the Desert
• New Chapter Launched: Orange Coast College
• New Chapter Launched: Cosumnes River College
• New Chapter Launched: Claremont McKenna College
• New Chapter Launched: San Joaquin Delta College
• New Chapter Launched: Concordia University Irvine
• New Chapter Launched: Humboldt State

“These numbers are fantastic news that paints a picture of who has the enthusiasm and momentum going into the November election — and it is clearly Republicans and President Trump,” said Bertao.

“But we urgently need help to capitalize on the surge and recruit even more Republican activists over the coming weeks,” he continued.

CCR provides tabling and recruitment material to its chapters in order to help sign up and bring in new Republicans to the movement — but the rush of sign ups has drained inventory.

“We are short of being able to fund the printing and ordering of new materials to help us recruit more members — and really need the public’s help to keep the momentum going,” said Bertao.

“These numbers are just the beginning — and we can double and triple them with your help,” he continued.

Over the last year, College Republicans have been hard at work making over 15,000 phone calls and knocking thousands of doors to boost voter turnout, hosting training events with members, tabling on campus to recruit new Republican activists, fighting Leftist campus administrations, running over 10 members for various elected offices up and down the ballot (including the current Republican nominee facing off against Nancy Pelosi), recruiting and electing members to student governments — such as 6 major wins at UC Irvine, and much more.

You can contribute to help recruit these new Republican activists below. And if you can't contribute, you can also help CCR’s fight against the Left on campuses in 2 key ways:

1. RECRUIT: If you or someone you know has a conservative high school or college student — please send them to CCR to bring them into the College Republican family and start more chapters throughout the state.

2. FOLLOW & SHARE: Follow CCR on social media @cacollegegop and check out the latest news updates on cacollegegop.org to see more of what CCR is working on. Share this information with your friends and family to help get the word out about CCR’s work!