Trumpy student senator resigns, runs for Republican committee in Illinois

Dakota Driemeyer, a USC student senator who pledged to fight the “woke agenda” and found himself in hot water over a social media post that some students called racist, resigned from his role and now plans to run for a seat on a political committee in rural Illinois, he told Morning, Trojan.

He will seek a seat on the Bond County Republican Central Committee, a group which supports Republican candidates in southwestern Illinois. His leave of absence, which he attributed in part to political disagreements with student government colleagues, was first reported by Annenberg Media. The candidacy hasn’t been reported until now.

Driemeyer styled himself as a voice for conservative students on campus, touting his rural Illinois farming roots. As president of the USC College Republicans, he had a knack for stirring controversy.

After Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s Democratic primary in June, Driemeyer signed off on an Instagram story that read “NYC has forgotten” under a photo of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Another student group called the post “Islamophobic and classless.”

Driemeyer later defended the post in a statement that alternately blasted the “bloodlust of Jihad” and “woke progressives.”

Annenberg Media reported that he voted against appointing leaders to the Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment because its support of abortion rights was “diametrically opposed to the social values of Catholics, Christians, and Conservatives on this campus.”

Campaign finance disclosures show Driemeyer originally intended to run for Illinois’s House of Representatives. The only donation on record is a $200 contribution from his parents.

He said he dropped out to support another candidate.

Tomo Chien can be reached at [email protected].