Calls for accountability are mounting from both Democrats and Republicans after racist and antisemitic messages surfaced in a group chat tied to leaders of the Miami-Dade Republican Party.
Reports revealed this week that a WhatsApp chat created by Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee Secretary Abel Alexander Carvajal and populated by conservative student activists contained racial slurs, antisemitic remarks and graphic discussions about violence against Black people.
The revelations prompted swift condemnation from officials across the political spectrum, with several Republicans calling for Carvajal’s resignation and Democrats demanding broader accountability.
Miami-Dade Republican Party Chair Kevin Cooper said the language revealed in the chat was unacceptable and urged Carvajal to step down.
“For the good of the party and the diverse community we represent, he should resign immediately,” Cooper told The Floridian, calling the messages “reprehensible and completely inconsistent with the values of the Republican Party.”
The chat logs, first reported Wednesday, show participants repeatedly using the N-word — reportedly hundreds of times — while trading racist, sexist and antisemitic comments.
In one message, a participant listed dozens of violent ways to kill Black people, including crucifying, dissecting and beheading them.
Other posts mocked Black professors at Florida International University, with one participant writing, “I refuse to be indoctrinated by the coloreds,” while another urged members to “avoid the coloreds like the plague.”
Participants also used antisemitic slurs and disparaged Jewish people. In one exchange, Ian Valdes, president of FIU’s Turning Point USA chapter, wrote, “I would def not marry a Jew.”
At one point, the chat’s name was changed to reference “Agartha,” a mythical White civilization tied to Nazi ideology. Participants described it in the chat as “Nazi heaven.”
Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras has also called for Carvajal’s resignation.
“Hatred toward Jewish Americans, racist rhetoric, calls for violence — all these ideas have no place in our party, our state, or our country,” he said. “When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida.”
Porras previously helped found Florida’s first Turning Point USA chapter at FIU with Charlie Kirk. This week, he and Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez passed legislation to rename a stretch of roadway near the campus “Charlie Kirk Memorial Avenue” to honor the slain conservative activist who founded the national organization.
Rodriguez and fellow Miami-Dade Republican Sens. Alexis Calatayud and Ileana Garcia issued a joint statement condemning what they described as the chat’s “vile and unacceptable language” and demanding Carvajal’s resignation.
“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican Party of Florida,” the statement said. “We will hold them accountable. … We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party. … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”
The statement also noted that the Senate this week passed legislation by Calatayud and Hollywood independent Sen. Jason Pizzo to create a statewide Antisemitism Task Force.
Democrats in the county echoed those calls while warning that the episode reflects a deeper problem.
Miami Gardens Sen. Shevrin Jones, a past Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair who recently won a race to lead Senate Democrats in 2028, called the leaked chat logs deeply disturbing and demanded consequences.
“Language that demeans Black residents, Jewish people, or any community is not only offensive — it is dangerous,” he said. “Words like these cannot simply be dismissed as jokes, private conversations, or poor judgment. They reflect attitudes that are incompatible with leadership in a community as diverse and proud as Miami-Dade.”
Justin Mendoza Routt, President of the Miami-Dade Young Democrats and a candidate for House District 113, called the messages “reprehensible.”
“Leadership requires accountability. Anyone entrusted with a position of responsibility must uphold the highest standards of conduct,” he said, adding that both the Miami-Dade GOP and FIU — where several of the chat’s members attended school and participated in campus political events — should provide explanations and take action. “Our community deserves better, and we must remain committed to rejecting bigotry in all its forms.”
FIU said it’s investigating the situation and that the chat logs are part of an active criminal probe.
Christian Ulvert, an influential Democratic consultant who advises Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, said the revelations expose a troubling culture within local GOP political circles.
“The vile, racist and antisemitic messages exposed from a group chat administered by the leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party should open the eyes of many in our community,” Ulvert said. “There must be swift action and a full repudiation of the language, the ideas, and the people participating in this chat.”
Lawyer Ashley Litwin Diego, a Democratic candidate for House District 106, said the messages sickened her on a personal level.
“I am horrified as a Jewish woman and mother to read the leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party write, ‘I would def not marry a Jew’ and ‘I refused to be indoctrinated by the coloreds,’” she said. “The messages shared and now exposed are outrageous and disgusting, and have no place in our community.”
Carvajal acknowledged creating the group chat but said he had not seen many of the most offensive messages until reporters contacted him.
“My biggest regret is that in doing that, I facilitated this kind of deranged stuff being out there,” he told the Miami Herald.
The controversy comes about four months after another scandal involving GOP messages drew widespread attention, raising concerns about extremist rhetoric circulating in party-aligned political spaces.
POLITICO reported in October that thousands of private Telegram texts between Young Republican leaders across several states featured racist, antisemitic and homophobic slurs, with participants joking about gas chambers, rape and slavery. The leaked chats, spanning months of political organizing within the Young Republican National Federation, triggered widespread condemnation from Republican officials and led to job losses, rescinded job offers and calls for those involved to resign.
Vice President JD Vance dismissed outrage over the chat as “pearl clutching,” arguing that offensive jokes in a private group chat shouldn’t ruin young people’s lives and are less serious than explicit calls for political violence.
This week’s revelations echo a prior controversy involving the school’s Turning Point USA chapter. In 2018, a Miami New Times investigation found that members of the group shared racist memes, rape jokes and other offensive content in a private group chat called “TPUSA FIU Fun.”
Messages included racist images depicting sexual violence, jokes about deporting Latina women, references to underage cartoon pornography and discussions referencing White nationalist figures and rhetoric. The chat followed earlier controversies involving FIU conservative groups’ private messages about neo-Nazi violence and immigration enforcement against fellow students.
