The Youngest Republican Chair in State Party History Is Done With the GOP
Kolby LaMarche was a star in the making, but he could no longer support a party pushing the politics of division
Kolby LaMarche is in his first year at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, where he’s studying communications and law. He enjoys food, hiking, and playing with his cat — and until last week, he was the chair of the Burlington Republican Party.
LaMarche was elected to his role in January 2019, when he was 17, which (he’s pretty sure) makes him the youngest chair in state party history. But LaMarche grew concerned with the growing extremism within his party’s ranks, and posted on social media and wrote several op-eds for the local website VTDigger demanding party leaders distance themselves from former President Trump. Finally, after months of criticism by local GOP leaders, LaMarche announced his resignation on February 18. “As a result of [the state Republican Party’s] fixation on loyalty to narcissistic national leaders and their adoption of a politics of personal revenge, I am disappointed to conclude that it is no longer productive for me to serve the remainder of my term as chair,” LaMarche wrote in a letter addressed to Burlington Republican Party Committee Members. The letter marks the end, at least…
