Sophomore Reagan Kurk, newly elected chairperson for College Republicans at IU, lived a life connected to politics from the day she was born.
Named after Ronald Reagan, she said she plans to continue to follow a passion that began when she was a young girl whose parents would talk to her about everything from policy to presidents.
“I remember being four years old and running around with American flags,” Kurk said.
Although she grew up in a conservative household and has always identified as a Republican, Kurk said her parents taught her to focus on overall political engagement rather than enforcing party values. Her mother ran for office when she was younger, but it was a nonpartisan experience because school board candidates do not run under a party.
Former chairman and senior Brian Gamache said Kurk is the first sophomore to be elected as chair as far back as he knows, but he is not concerned about how she or her similarly young executive team will do.
“I’m 100 percent confident they’ll just grow it,” Gamache said. “They’ll take what we did last year and just blow it out of the water.”
Kurk said she ran for chairperson because she wanted what was best for the IU College Republicans and other members convinced her she was the one who could move the club in the direction they wanted.
Her goal as chair is to help others find internships and form connections in the political world.
“It’s less about what I can do as chair and more about seeing what the club can do together,” Kurk said. “I just make sure the trains run on time.”
Kurk’s relationship with College Republicans began before Kurk was a student at IU. The summer before her freshman year, Kurk decided to fly to Washington, D.C., and stay with a relative she had never met to learn more about politics, she said.
When she met with the office of then-Rep. Todd Young, R-Indiana, Gamache was on staff as an intern, and Gamache said he talked with Kurk about bringing the drive she showed in Washington back to College Republicans.
“I was impressed by the precociousness she showed there,” Gamache said.
He said he believes Kurk’s connections with Republican candidates, like senator-elect Todd Young, state offices and the Indiana Republican Party will help the College Republicans flourish now that the presidential election is over.
Gamache is no longer able to serve as chairman because of the way the organization runs its elections.
The chairperson for IU’s chapter of College Republicans is elected in November, a week after official Election Day, Gamache said. The chair then serves until a week after Election Day the next year.
This election process differs from the typical timeline used by IU clubs and other College Republicans chapters, but it works well for IU College Republicans’ goals, Gamache said. As part of their own campaigns, students show their worth based on the work they did for the campaigns they volunteered with during election season.
Kurk said she hopes to work with everyone to create a broader civil discussion instead of only making decisions based on Republican ideals.
“I use that label, and I’m confident in that label, but at the same time, I don’t want to be isolated in that label because we lose the democratic values our country is based on,” Kurk said.
