In a shocking move, College Republican National Committee Chairman (CRNC) Alex Schriver announced his resignation out of the blue Monday morning leaving his post three months early.
In an email announcing his resignation sent to friends, Schriver did not say exactly why he was vacating the post, however he insinuated in the email that he had another job lined up.
“I am moving back to my home state of Alabama to pursue opportunities about which I am equally excited,” Schriver explained in an email to friends.
Taking his place at the head of the CRNC is current Co-Chair Alex Smith, who was already running unopposed for the position in an election scheduled for this June.
“I am confident Alex and her team will do an outstanding job at the helm,” Shriver said.
Smith said today has been “bittersweet,” because Schriver has been “a real role model” and a “friend” to her.
“I was really honored to be a part of his administration,” she told Red Alert Politics.
While there has been one other woman to take over as the CRNC chairman after a resignation, Schriver said Smith is on track to be the first woman in modern history to be elected to the post.
“We can demonstrate on a national level that all kinds of people get involved with College Republicans,” Smith said of her accomplishments.
After “sitting in the passenger seat”, Smith said she’ll be able to “hit the ground running” as chair of one of the largest national organizations for college students.
This moves comes less than two weeks before Smith will speak at Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC). She is scheduled to speak on the panel, “The Future of the Movement: Winning with Generation X/Y,” where she says she’ll share “what I envision for the youth movement and conservatism as a whole for the next two years of my chairmanship.”
“We have responsibility as a youth Republican organization to…persuade young people online,” she added.
While Smith said she was “intimidated” to join the ranks of previous CRNC Chairs like Karl Rove and Grover Norquist, she’s also “really excited to see where we can take the youth movement for the next 20 years not just the next year.”
