Extensive College Fix research shows the scholarships go heavily to liberal students
The Truman Scholarship program needs a “full review” due to its “political imbalance,” according to Rep. Elise Stefanik.
The New York Republican, and newly added board member for the taxpayer-funded program, made the demand after learning a student awardee is allegedly pro-Hamas and “antisemitic.” She wants this specific student’s scholarship “rescinded” as well.
Stefanik sent an accompanying letter to her fellow trustees, citing research from both The College Fix and the American Enterprise Institute, which found a heavily Democratic tilt of winners between 2021 to 2023. The Fix has furthermore found a heavy Democratic tilt for eleven years in a row now.
The Truman Foundation’s executive secretary Terry Babcock-Lumish ignored media inquiries in April regarding the latest evidence showing a significant tilt toward Democratic students. The Foundation released the results in the middle of the day on Good Friday and subsequently staffers appeared to be out of the office the following Easter Monday.
Babcock-Lumish has previously disagreed with claims of political bias in the Truman program.
“The Truman Foundation’s selection process is based solely on applicants’ demonstrated commitment to public service, leadership potential, and academic excellence,” the former Clinton White House staffer and consultant to the Gates Foundation told The Fix last year.
Stefanik does not believe this is true.
“I was excited when I was recently appointed to serve as a Board Member of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation,” Stefanik wrote on X Thursday morning.
However, according to her, “one of the 2025 recipients of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship funded by American taxpayers is a pro-Hamas, antisemitic student.”
The student, who she does not name in her post but does in her letter, “was one of the authors of the disgraced Harvard letter saying that Israel was ‘entirely responsible’ for the Hamas attack that slaughtered over 1,200 innocent people and kidnapped over 250.”
I was excited when I was recently appointed to serve as a Board Member of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.
Unfortunately, today it has come to my attention that one of the 2025 recipients of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship funded by American taxpayers is a pro-Hamas,… pic.twitter.com/cLsIGJ1u0H
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) May 29, 2025
“This does NOT reflect American values for a scholarship program funded by hardworking U.S. taxpayers nor does it reflect the values of Harry S. Truman who was the first U.S. President to recognize the state of Israel,” Stefanik said.
The specific student singled out by Stefanik is Eva Frazier, a “leader of the Harvard Palestine Solidarity [Committee],” according to Jewish News Syndicate.
Frazier has previously faced public criticism for her pro-Palestinian activism, as a billboard truck with her face drove around Harvard and to her hometown, accusing her of being an “antisemite.”
In response, she told the VT Digger in Jan. 2024 the billboard truck campaign is part of a “larger goal is to silence all students, and especially people who are thinking about being vocal or visible about support for Palestine.”
“It is even more important to continue to advocate for justice in Palestine especially as genocide in Gaza continues,” she said.
MORE: MIT graduation speaker calls for activism to stop ‘genocidal Israeli military’
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Rep. Elise Stefanik; Congressional archives
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