With new logo, North Dakota Young Republicans align with notorious white supremacist (July 2025)

With new logo, North Dakota Young Republicans align with notorious white supremacist

The logo is identical to one used by notorious bigot and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, and why wouldn't it be? Members of the group have been aping Fuentes' rhetoric for years.

By Rob Port

MINOT — The North Dakota Young Republicans aren't really a part of the North Dakota Republican Party.

They're loosely affiliated, and at one point had a vote on the party's executive committee, but have since been moved to ex officio or "non-voting" status. But the NDYR group operates independently of the NDGOP. So independently that the group often promotes messaging opposed to elected Republicans.

Scroll down the group's Facebook page, and you'll see it promoting videos from former Republican state lawmaker Brandon Prichard, who last year organized a largely unsuccessful campaign against incumbent Republican lawmakers (ironically, voters gave Prichard the boot in that same election).

The NDYR may be loosely affiliated with Republicans, but that doesn't mean the group supports the sort of Republicans most North Dakotans have been voting for.

In recent years, the NDYR has been trending toward the extreme right-wing fringes. A recent branding change may indicate just how far to the right they've gone.

On July 23, the group updated its profile picture on Facebook with a new logo.

The logo has been raising eyebrows, because it's almost identical to one used by Nick Fuentes, a virulently homophobic, antisemitic, white supremacist who has, despite his extreme views, been getting traction with young conservatives.

You may recall the uproar that ensued when Fuentes and disgraced rapper Kanye West  dined with Donald Trump. Trump claimed to know nothing about Fuentes' views, which include Holocaust denial and the belief that the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel was staged.

This is the logo Fuentes uses on his America First podcast, which streams on Rumble among other platforms.

Just a coincidence?

That seems unlikely. All the more so when you consider that, back in 2022, a Telegram messaging group associated with the Young Republicans featured slurs and other comments that align with Fuentes' bigoted views.

In one post, Carter Eisinger, then the NDGOP's candidate for state House in District 11, complained about Fargo-area Democratic-NPL lawmaker Josh Boschee, who is openly gay, working to advance LGBT issues. A reply from a user named Matt Evans describes Boschee as a "degenerate clown" who, along with Fargo City Commissioner John Strand, who is also gay, "are both alphabet soup creatures."

Another reply from Ben Schirrick, the president of the North Dakota State University College Republicans at the time, described walking through a "fag festival" and describing the participants as "very loud."

"It was a private chat," Schirrick said at the time when I reached him for comment. "Hate speech is free speech," which is correct. Saying hateful things isn't illegal, nor should it be. It is hateful, though, and people who say those things should be held accountable, don't you think?

Another post referred to antisemitic conspiracy theories that hold that Jewish people control the news media.

"I'll post this video every year on the same day as long as the jews don't ban me from the internet," a person with the username Critter1776 posted.

The video in question is of the 2018 Horizon Air Q400 incident, which saw a ground service agent with no piloting experience, named Richard Russell, take off from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington in a stolen airplane before intentionally crashing it on an island in Puget Sound.

While flying, Russell asked a ground control official if he could get a job as a pilot if he landed the plane successfully. After the official responded, Russell said he wouldn't get a job. "Nah, I'm a white guy," he reportedly said.

Russell has since become something of a folk hero to white supremacists on the internet.

Participating in this group, where messages like these were frequently posted, were Andrea Toman, at the time a campaign manager for former state lawmaker Rick Becker's U.S. Senate campaign; Jared Hendrix, who was selected to the state House of Representatives last year; and Damian Johnston, son of state Rep. Daniel Johnston. Damian Johnston was convicted of a crime for his participation in the Jan. 6 riot and subsequently pardoned by Trump.

Is it all that shocking to learn this group for young North Dakota Republicans, members of which have privately aped Fuentes' hateful rhetoric in years past, is now aligning itself with Fuentes in an explicit if symbolic way?

Speaking of explicit alignment, here, by way of the Intercept, is a quote from a speech Fuentes gave at a Detroit conference: “You know that I am your voice,” Fuentes said. “So in the spirit of me being your voice, I want you to raise your right hand, and repeat after me: ‘I solemnly swear that I will put America First and I will put Israel last every single time, because Christ is our king.’”

Prichard, in 2023, while he was still in office, echoed this call to Christian nationalism in a homophobic tirade on social media. He wrote that conservative states should declare "Jesus Christ is King and dedicate their states to him."

Earlier this year, state Rep. Nico Rios, a Republican from Williston who is a member of the NDYRs, heeded Prichard's call. He sponsored a resolution that would have declared, as a matter of North Dakota law and in defiance of the U.S. Constitution's prohibitions on the government endorsing religion, that "Christ is king."

Rios, who was caught on video berating two law enforcement officers with homophobic jibes during an arrest for DUI in 2023, also made headlines during the legislative session for posting this on social media about Mexico's Jewish president: "Wonder if the CIA would help Trump overthrow and kick this Jew out of power in Mexico?"

Are we to believe that all of these things are mere coincidences? Is it merely circumstance that the North Dakota Young Republicans have adopted a new logo that looks identical to one used by Fuentes after years of young North Dakota Republicans parroting Fuentes' ugly ideas?

"For a time, associating with Nick Fuentes was enough to tank a career in GOP politics," Amanda Moore wrote for the Intercept last year. "Now, it hardly seems to matter."

Can anyone say she's wrong? These young Republicans are the future of the party. Can we say it looks bright?

By the way, if you think the NDGOP might take action to distance itself from the ND Young Republicans, don't hold your breath. The party has been taken over by people who ideologically align with this stuff, and they're too busy censuring Gov. Kelly Armstrong for vetoing a book ban.

Among those who "liked" the new NDYR logo on Facebook was newly-elected NDGOP chairman Matthew Simon.