Last week, the young Latino woman who was the president of the College Democrats of America, which has 500 chapters and 47 state federations, resigned after a series of events in which the board’s only black member claimed the organization’s leadership was racist and he resigned. Federations associated with the organization demanded the young woman’s resignation. She urged other board members to resign, and she appointed the young black man vice-president, paving the way for him to replace her when she later resigned.
Matthew Nowling, formerly the group’s communications director, wrote an open letter in late June announcing his resignation. It was signed by 17 federations and the number of signatures mushroomed within hours, The New York Times reported. That prompted another open letter on June 30 from a coalition of state federations in which they wrote:
Matthew Nowling should not have had to resign. The treatment Matthew described in his statement and in his testimony at the “town hall” by the current Executive Board was abhorrent and inexcusable. Matthew brought attention to the shared experiences of so many POC who consider themselves part of this organization — that the College Democrats of America leadership turns a blind eye to racism and classism in the national leadership.
Real change in this organization is long overdue, and our coalition of state federations, standing with Matthew, have the following demands of the current Executive Board and asks of the National Council. If our immediate demands are not met, and commitments to reforms are not made by the national leadership within forty-eight hours, our federations will leave the College Democrats of America, cut all ties with the organization, and denounce it in its current form.
They continued with a list of demands, including: “The immediate resignation of College Democrats of America President Tikaela Guido,” a commitment from the current Executive Board to eschew “running for a position in the upcoming elections or any after and to commit to not accepting any appointments for national leadership,” that the Executive Board would “not proceed with appointments to fill vacancies until the National Council has the opportunity to review and extensively vet potential appointees,” and “that the Democratic National Committee conduct independent election monitoring of the upcoming College Democrats of America elections and all elections after.”
Guido, a law student at the University of Florida, issued an email in which she defended herself, writing, “What I do not stand for is being labeled a racist or complacent in racism. The gross mischaracterization that I contributed to this environment is unequivocally false. Moreover, these unsubstantiated claims of racism towards me have an appearance of being used as a front for personal disagreements, which is morally reprehensible.”
The next morning she stated, “I may not be the person that membership feels represents them currently, and I may need to make space for someone who does,” later adding she would “slow down, reflect on my mistakes and spend time with family.”
Nowling stated that in a different organization, his concerns might “have been brushed under the rug, and I would have simply resigned and nothing would have changed.” He continued, “This is not just a College Democrats of America thing. This is a broader societal issue, and I just happened to have a platform where when I spoke out about it, people took action.”
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