Miami-Dade GOP Leaders Urge Resignation of Party Secretary After Leaked WhatsApp Messages With Racist Slurs

Local Republican officials move to distance party from chat linked to campus conservative leaders

Senior Republicans in Miami-Dade County are calling for the resignation of a county party officer after leaked WhatsApp messages showed repeated racist and antisemitic slurs and references to Nazi-era imagery in a private group chat that included local conservative student leaders.

The controversy centers on Abel Alexander Carvajal, the secretary of the Miami-Dade County Republican Party. The chat was created last fall and included individuals described as leaders in campus-based conservative groups, including Florida International University’s Turning Point USA chapter leadership and a former College Republicans recruitment official. The messages circulated widely this week after the logs became public, prompting swift condemnation from elected officials and party leadership in South Florida.

Miami-Dade County Republican Party Chairman Kevin Cooper said those associated with the chat should resign immediately. State Rep. Juan Porras, a Miami Republican who also serves on party structures in the county, separately called on Carvajal to step down, describing the content as incompatible with the party’s obligations to voters and the broader community.

Three Miami-Dade-based Republican state senators—Ana Maria Rodriguez, Ileana Garcia and Alexis Calatayud—issued a joint condemnation of the messages and called for Carvajal’s immediate resignation. Their statement denounced racist, antisemitic and misogynistic language attributed to participants in the group.

Republican leaders said the messages undermine public trust and are inconsistent with party values.

Carvajal has publicly rejected calls to resign. He has said he did not see much of the content until contacted by reporters and characterized the revelations as serious. The leaked logs also indicate messages were deleted within the group; the full context of some exchanges is not available from the material that has been publicly described.

Separately, Florida International University confirmed it reviewed the matter in response to questions about whether student conduct policies were implicated. The university’s public posture has emphasized free-speech considerations, while the political fallout has largely played out inside party and elected-official circles rather than through formal campus discipline.

What happens next

• County party leadership is under pressure to clarify whether it will pursue internal disciplinary steps beyond public calls for resignation.

• Republican elected officials are seeking to demonstrate a clear break from the chat’s content as the issue draws broader attention in Florida politics.

• Questions remain about oversight of party-affiliated messaging channels and the role of student political networks inside local party organizations.

The episode has reignited scrutiny of how political organizations manage member conduct in private digital spaces, particularly when participants hold formal titles within local party structures or lead campus groups that serve as pipelines into party politics.