WASHINGTON - The executive committee of the New York Republican State Committee voted on Oct. 17 to suspend the state’s young Republican chapter after the leaders of that group sent racist and derogatory text messages in a Telegram chat.

The text messages, first reported by Politico, included racial epithets disparaging Black people; someone calling rape “epic”; the same individual writing in support of genocidal Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler; jokes about putting political opponents in gas chambers; and praise for Republicans who “support slavery.”

"The Young Republicans was already grossly mismanaged, and vile language of the sort made in the group chat has no place in our party or its subsidiary organizations,” New York Republican State Committee Chairman Ed Cox said in a statement.

Several of the text messages, written over seven months in a chat titled "RESTOREYR WAR ROOM," were from Peter Giunta, former chair of the New York State Young Republicans. Giunta, who served as New York Assemblyman Michael Reilly’s chief of staff, was fired from his role following his involvement in the chat.

Three other leaders in the New York chapter as well as Young Republican leaders in Kansas, Arizona and Vermont also sent text messages.

The Kansas Republican Party denounced the two leaders of the Kansas Young Republicans, chair Alex Dwyer and vice chair William Hendrix, for their involvement. Hendrix was fired from his job with the Attorney General's Office over the leaked messages, and the party became inactive after leaders and rank-and-file members resigned.

Kansas GOP chair Danedri Herbert said in a statement that party leadership was disgusted by the comments and that they don't represent the beliefs of Kansas Republicans.

Contributing: Joey Garrison, USA TODAY; Jack Harvel, Topeka Capital-Journal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New York GOP committee disbands young Republicans chapter after racist texts exposed

Reporting by Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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