Bradley Devlin, former secretary of Berkeley College Republicans, assumed the position of club president Thursday after members voted out former president Troy Worden last month.

Devlin’s election as president comes after a period of confusion over Worden’s status within the club. Devlin previously told The Daily Californian that the club voted to oust Worden as president Oct. 12. According to Devlin, Worden was voted out partly as a result of his poor handling of the Ben Shapiro campus event Sept. 14, which was organized by BCR.

According to BCR member and Worden’s girlfriend, Ashton Whitty, Worden will remain in BCR.

“The members of the Berkeley College Republicans are excited for this change and enthusiastic for the future, and I am honored to represent them,” Devlin said.

Devlin also criticized Worden’s choice to get involved in “Free Speech Week” despite BCR’s legal counsel advising club members to dissociate themselves from the event.

After the Oct. 16 vote, Worden subsequently disputed the decision, alleging that the voting body consisted mostly of freshman pledges from Devlin’s fraternity.

Worden could not be reached for comment as of press time.

Whitty stated that the pledges had only attended one meeting and were all Democrats. According to Whitty, members of BCR must be registered Republicans, with the exception of freshmen or students not from the United States.

Because the first vote involved mostly non-BCR members, an additional vote was held Nov. 9 which elected Devlin as president.

“The Berkeley College Republicans … are recommitting ourselves to conservative education, in order to elect more Republican officials and registering Republican voters,” Devlin said in a statement released after his election.

Devlin and Worden’s views are equally moderate, Whitty said. She denied an anonymous BCR member’s previous statement to The Daily Californian suggesting that Worden was too “alt-right.”

“I think it’s important that we debunk this. A lot of people have been attacking him physically and stalking him because of that comment,” Whitty said.

Whitty added that the only distinction between Devlin and Worden is their intended focus for the club. Worden, according to Whitty, wanted to promote more activism surrounding free speech, whereas Devlin intends to focus on electing more Republican politicians.

According to Whitty, Antifa and Cal Berkeley Democrats were allegedly rooting for Devlin in the election because they felt he was more moderate. Whitty added, however, that with Devlin as president, there will be more sponsorship from Young America’s Foundation, which, she said, means “a lot more speakers are going to be coming to Berkeley.”

Young America’s Foundation was the driving financial force behind past campus events for controversial conservative speakers such as Shapiro and Ann Coulter, before pulling its support two days before the event.

“We remain unequivocally committed to fighting for free speech on college campuses and plan on exercising these rights in order to forward Republican causes to the dismay of a university administration committed to stonewalling our efforts,” Devlin said in his statement.