Another horrific tragedy has struck the nation, just months after the murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. A gunman opened fire inside Brown University’s Barus & Holley building in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday afternoon, killing two and wounding at least nine others. Officials initially announced that a suspect was taken into custody late Saturday, but released the individual on Sunday morning. At present, a manhunt is underway for the shooter.
One of those killed in the shooting was 19-year-old Brown University sophomore Ella Cook, vice president of the Ivy League school’s chapter of the College Republicans of America (CRA). CRA President Martin Bertao eulogized that Cook was “known for her bold, brave, and kind heart as she served her chapter and her fellow classmates. Our prayers are with her family, our Brown CR’s [sic], and the entirety of the campus as they heal from this tragedy.” CRA founder and chairman William Branson Donahue claimed that Cook was “allegedly targeted for her conservative beliefs, hunted, and killed in cold blood.” He added, “The entire College Republicans community is weeping this evening learning of the news. This was an attack on our family.”
“It’s near impossible finding good leaders for our College Republicans chapters on these campuses. Our Brown chapter is very small at a super left school. It’s difficult being one of the only students at your school to stand up and fight for your values,” Donahue stated. “As a sophomore, Ella Cook was brave enough to join chapter leadership. I too was a sophomore when I started CRs at LMU. I was attacked constantly. I know first hand how hard it is to stay in the fight when you’re hated for just existing. We face constant pressures from the left.”
Vice President J.D. Vance also paid tribute to the slain College Republican. “This beautiful young girl was one of the murdered students at Brown University. It takes special courage to lead an organization of conservatives on a left wing campus, and I am very sorry our country has lost one of its bright young stars,” he said in a social media post.
Gabe Guidarini, chairman of CRA’s Ohio federation, highlighted a Truth Social post by President Trump commenting on the murder of filmmaker Rob Reiner and Reiner’s “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” opining, “Very few tweets from GOP on Ella Cook, no tweet from Trump. But we do have a tweet from Trump (ostensibly his staffer) mocking Rob Reiner (something right wing posters aren’t even doing), giving the left even more oxygen for their violence campaign.” He continued, “Do you understand how it feels to the Republican base like our leadership is missing in action? It seems like they’re doing everything they can to put us in an even *worse* position by being uncoordinated and sloppy.” Guidarini observed that “social media was dominated by news about Ella Cook. Now it’s all just about Trump’s tweet about Rob Reiner. … It’s a masterclass on how distant the White House can be from what’s actually happening on the ground level.”
Brown’s CRA chapter is one of only three conservative student organizations on campus, the other two being Brown Students for Life and a chapter of the Federalist Society. According to the Brown Daily Herald, a combined 78% of students identify as either “somewhat” or “very liberal or progressive,” while less than 6% of students identified as “somewhat conservative” and only 0.8% identified as “very conservative.”
Alabama Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth (R) honored Cook as “a devoted Christian and a committed conservative who represented the very best of Alabama. A bright future was ended much too soon. Join me in lifting up her family in prayers of comfort.”
