KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A report published Tuesday by Politico revealed thousands of messages from young Republican leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.
At least two of the leaders involved in the messages were part of the Kansas Young Republicans organization.
The report names the pair as Kansas Young Republicans’ chair and vice chair, respectively, among those who participated in the thousands of messages, which contained derogatory and racist messages.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Kansas Young Republicans chapter had been shut down.
The report prompted a statement from Kansas Republican Party Chair Danedri Herbert.
— Kansas GOP (@KansasGOP) October 14, 2025
“Kansas Republican Party leadership is disgusted by the comments by young Kansas Republicans mentioned in the Politico story,” Herbert said in a statement posted on social media. “Their comments do not reflect the beliefs of Republicans and certainly not of Kansas Republicans at large, who elected a black chair a few months ago.
“Republicans believe that all people are created in the image of God. In fact, our platform clearly states ‘We welcome Kansans of every ethnicity into our party as we work together to preserve our heritage of political equality, religious freedom and strong moral values. We strive to eliminate racism and we condemn all racist acts and groups.”
Following the Politico report, Republican Vicki Schmidt, who is vying to win her party’s nomination to run for Kansas governor, called on other candidates to join her in condemning the messages. She described the messages as "disgraceful conduct."
“Today, I’m calling on Alex Dwyer (Chair) and William Hendrix (Vice Chair) to step down from their positions with the Kansas Young Republicans. Their actions are disgusting and disgraceful and they tarnish the reputation of Kansas nationally. I hope my fellow Republicans running for Governor will join me in disavowing this behavior and expecting more of all of our leaders at every level of the party.”
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