Nearly three-quarters of Penn State College Republicans do not support Donald Trump for president, according to a letter the group released late Thursday.

The overwhelming disfavor prompted the organization to publicly announce its decision not to endorse the GOP nominee, an indicator the battleground state may present itself as a significant challenge for Trump to win in November, where Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has a 9-point lead over Trump, according to a RealClearPolitics average.

Penn State College Republicans have played a role in campaign issues since 1940. The group's executive group said despite its long history of backing the conservative party's representative, it will forgo that action this year, joining similar GOP groups at Harvard and Princeton Universities.

"Our membership was given the chance to vote on whether they would support Donald Trump. We found that a vast majority of the membership, roughly 72 percent, was against having us support him," the group wrote.


Although PSCR did not question members on the reason for their opposition to him, the executive board said his policy views "certainly must have had an impact on our membership's view of his candidacy, otherwise there would not have been such a large percentage of the membership against endorsing him."

"One such policy proposal may have been when Donald Trump stated that he would consider ordering the military to commit to killing the families and associates of suspected terrorists, this would be a policy that doesn't fall in line with Republican, American, or Penn State values. Another might be the fact that he has consistently flipped his stances on nearly every topic, with the exception of his stance on forcing Mexico to build a wall that he says 'they will pay for,'" the letter states.

The group even cited a story that sucked up much of Thursday's news coverage, Trump's stating that President Obama founded the Islamic State.

While the Penn State GOP group will not help Trump's race for the White House, it will focus its efforts to help Republicans maintain their congressional majority, as well as candidates in state races.

"America has and always will be great, there is no need to change the principles our nation was founded upon, instead we should strive to protect them," the letter concludes.