Outside the Monroe County Republican Party's Tuesday meeting at The Warehouse.
(WTIU News, Bente Bouthier)
The Monroe County Republican Party barred WFIU/WTIU News and a couple other people from attending its monthly meeting, held at The Warehouse on Tuesday.
The party’s guest speaker was Caleb Shumaker, whose previous involvement with the National Youth Front and social media presence prompted online questions and pushback.
Shumaker was dismissed from work on Mike Braun’s campaign for US Senate in 2017 for his ties to the National Youth Front, which the Southern Poverty Law Center defines as a white nationalist group.
Brennan Golightly planned to attend the meeting because he read about Shumaker’s background and was concerned. Golightly said he was approached before the meeting began and asked if he was a registered Republican.
“And I said, ‘No, I'm not registered with either party,’” he said. “‘I'm a neighbor, and I'm interested to hear what the speaker has to say.”’
Golightly said he was asked to leave then.
“I thought this was a free country, and I thought we were supposed to educate ourselves, and that's what I was trying to do,” he said.
Paul Hager attended the meeting, the first he’d come to in a long time, because he said, “it showed up on my Facebook.”
Hager said the meeting focused on, “various organizational elements: how to get precinct committee people appointed and elected. So that was part of it, things tied into fundraising.”
On Shumaker’s past with the National Youth Front Hager said, “there was some brief discussion about that, to say that there was nothing to it.”
Shumaker declined to interview with WFIU/WTIU News after the event and did not respond to emailed questions.
Monroe County Republican Party leadership Cory Grass and Noelle Conyer did not respond to multiple requests for an interview or provide comment on how Shumaker came to speak at their monthly meeting.
Shumaker, 31, is a Republican political strategist based in Daviess County.
“As a generation we are facing Islamification though massive legal immigration from nations whose people are incompatible with us and our values…We must respect our ancestors who built this country for us, not to be given away by our parents in their foolishness and cowardice.”
“… It is imperative to reject socialist and antiwhite agendas. To refute and shame feminist ideologies that cripple the integrity and pride of a man and pit our sexes against each other.”
Shumaker told the IndyStar in 2017 that he left the group because it was moving in a white nationalist direction, and that "I fully, 100 percent condemn any form of racism, including white nationalism.”
After Shumaker left the National Youth Front and Braun’s campaign, he founded the Indiana First PAC. The PAC endorsed former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore for US Senate in 2017. During Moore’s campaign, he was accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers and he was an adult. Moore lost the election.
Since then, Shumaker started a digital consulting company for political campaigns. Its Facebook page goes back to 2023.
On Shumaker’s X account in December 2024, he shared a post that said single parents and gay couples should not be allowed to adopt, “because morally we should oppose commodification of children.”
He wrote on X last month that Tristan and Andrew Tate, who face human trafficking charges, did nothing wrong.
Screenshot from XScreenshot from X
Over the last week, Shumaker deleted these posts.
On Wednesday, he posted on X: “Don’t be racist.” And “Racism is not cool.”
Screenshot from X
Monroe County Republican Party leadership did not respond to questions on whether Shumaker was paid to speak at its meeting or whether they planned to employ him for future endeavors.
The Monroe County Republican Party recently elected Cory Grass as its new chairman. According to his Facebook, Grass is the Governmental Affairs Director for Lt. Gov Micah Beckwith.
Beckwith will also speak in Bloomington at The Warehouse at 7 p.m. April 28.
After its Tuesday meeting with Shumaker, the Monroe County Republican Party posted on Facebook: “A big thanks to everyone in attendance who showed up to help get Monroe County back on the right track.”
