Poster of alleged Nathaniel Ellis’ connection to Patriot Front located on 17th and Broadway Street. (Ainsley Coogan/Cu Independent)
On Tuesday, flyers, webpages and social media posts began popping up online and around the city of Boulder, alleging that University of Colorado Boulder sophomore Nathaniel Ellis is affiliated with white nationalist groups, including Patriot Front.
Ellis is a mechanical engineering student at the university and serves as the secretary of CU Boulder’s chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative activist non-profit founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Founded in 2017, Patriot Front is a white nationalist, neo-fascist group. According to the Anti-Defamation League, “Patriot Front defines itself as an organization of ‘American nationalists,’ justifying its hate and intolerance under the guise of preserving America’s identity as a ‘Pan-European nation.’”
Patriot Front formed after a split with Vanguard America, a neo-nazi group. Thomas Ryan Rousseau rose to its leadership after leading a group of Vanguard America members during the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a man drove his car into a group of protesters, killing one person. Vanguard America soon after dissolved, and Patriot Front emerged in its place.
Two organizations, Front Range Anti-fascists and Colorado Springs Anti-fascists, have allegedly connected Ellis to hanging a Patriot Front banner over Foothills Parkway in Boulder in September of 2024. The organizations also claim to link Ellis to participating in an anti-LGBTQ demonstration outside of the Arvada Public Library this June, and participating in a boxing tournament hosted by SoCal Active Club in August.
News outlets such as CBS and The Guardian have tied active clubs to the mobilization and recruitment of far right extremists.
“With links to other militant organizations, including Patriot Front, they encourage a seemingly mainstream version of masculinity, layered with ideologies promoting a US race war and using the popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a gateway to recruiting,” said The Guardian.
Ellis has also been linked to a Patriot Front demonstration in Utah following the Kirk assasination, according to both anti-fascist organizations.
Front Range and Colorado Springs Anti-fascists connected Ellis to the organizations through a series of photographs and social media posts.
“We received a tip to look into Nathan’s Instagram profile after he was nominated to leadership at CU TPUSA,” wrote Front-Range Anti-fascists in an email to the CU Independent. “Upon looking at his profile, we were struck by the Hammerskins logo visible on his public profile. That is a hardcore neo-Nazi gang with several killings under their name.”
Nathan Ellis wearing a NON shirt in an Instagram post dated Aug. 11, 2025 (left) and at a Patriot Front demo in Utah dated Sept. 13, 2025 (right). (Courtesy of Front Range and Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists)
According to the ADL, the Hammerskins have a recognized history of racism and violence, as of 2023, the group has been banned in Germany.
On Ellis’ personal instagram account, in a tagged photograph, he can be seen wearing a “Total War” t-shirt, which is a song by the artist “NON,” or Boyd Rice. The symbol on his shirt can be associated with the Wolfsangel symbol, widely adopted in Nazi symbolism.
“Patriot Front demonstrations are invite only, so you have to be a member of Patriot Front, or at least be in an allied organization to participate,” Front Range Anti-fascists told the CU Independent in an email.
According to the ADL, Patriot Front demonstrations are “privately planned and unannounced events,” and members are “required to engage in on-the-ground activities for the group or risk expulsion.”
On Aug. 24, Ellis was photographed with the Asatru Folk Assembly, which Front Range Anti-fascists called, “a white supremacist neo-Pagan,” group. The Asatru Folk Assembly is a group that believes “pre-Christian Norse and Germanic religions can only be practiced by individuals with ancestral roots in those Northern European regions,” according to the Southern Policy Law Center.
“We want our children to grow up to be mothers and fathers to white children of their own,” the Asatru Folk Assembly website states. “We believe that those activities and behaviors supportive of the white family should be encouraged while those activities and behaviors destructive of the white family are to be discouraged.”
University spokesperson Nicole Mueksch said that, because of student privacy laws, the university cannot comment on specific cases. Mueksch could not confirm the university’s knowledge of Ellis’ alleged affiliations or if he is still enrolled as a student on campus.
Mueksch also did not share if the university has any plans to remove him from campus or extracurricular activities.
On Thursday, Ellis and other executive board members moderated a debate at a CU Boulder Turning Point meeting. There, members of the club debated the United States’ continued aid to Israel. At this meeting, Ellis confirmed to the CU Independent that he is the secretary of the club.
Nathanial Ellis at a Turning Point USA meeting at the University of Colorado Boulder Oct. 23, 2025. (Jessica Sachs/CU Independent)
Ellis’ statements to the CU Independent did not acknowledge the allegations of his involvement with Patriot Front, or any other white supremacist groups. The president of CU Boulder’s Turning Point chapter did not respond to requests for comment.
Following the meeting on Thursday, at approximately 6:50 p.m., Ellis claims that he was at the intersection of Baseline Road and U.S. Highway 36 when he was hit in the back of the head with a hockey stick by an unidentified masked person on rollerblades. According to Ellis, the attacker then “rollerbladed off.”
In a post on X, the Boulder Police Department said officers responded to an assault call at 7:06 p.m. Ellis was riding his bike when a man on roller blades approached him from behind and assaulted him verbally and with a hockey stick, according to the post.
The suspect is reported to be a white male, of medium-tall height and slender build. He was wearing all black clothing, a black ski mask and had a green gatorade bottle with an orange top in his back right pants pocket, carrying a hockey stick according to police.
Screenshot from a video of the suspect fleeing the scene of the attack. (Provided by Nathaniel Ellis)
Following the attack, the suspect fled. BPD is asking for the community’s help in locating the suspect. Anyone who witnessed this event or who has any information about the suspect or this incident is asked to call Boulder Police Detectives at 303-4471-1974.
“Last night, Antifa physically attacked me for my America first values and actions. The same people that killed Charlie Kirk,” Ellis said in a statement to the CU Independent. “Like Mr. Kirk, I will not let threats dissuade me from the TPUSA involvement or beliefs.”
Ellis’ allegations and subsequent attack come at a time of a documented rise in hate crimes on campus.
As dictated by the Jeanne Clery Act, CU Boulder publishes a report each year disclosing information regarding recent campus crime statistics. In 2022, one hate crime was reported on campus, in 2023, 32 were reported. That number decreased to 18 in 2024, the most recent year from which data is available.
Mueksch said that the university “respects the campus community’s right to freedom of speech. … Unless it rises to the level of discrimination or harassment, speech that is hurtful, biased, or offensive in nature is generally protected by the First Amendment.”
“CU Boulder condemns racism, violence and any acts that fail to live up to our core values,” Mueksch said in a statement to the CU Independent.
This is not the first time that a student on campus has been accused of ties to such organizations. In 2022, CU Boulder admitted Patryck Durham to the university, despite having prior knowledge of his membership with Patriot Front.
According to a spokesperson for ADL Mountain States, Patriot Front is the most publicly active white supremacist group in Colorado, making up more than 79% of white supremacist activity in Colorado. In one incident in June 2024, the University of Denver reported Patriot Front stickers were placed on the sidewalk outside of a university building.
“White supremacist groups often target college campuses because they see them as fertile ground for recruiting young members – an effort vital to sustaining and expanding their movement,” said the ADL spokesperson. “Their presence fosters a hostile, unsafe atmosphere, particularly for Jewish students and other minority students that these groups target.”
Responses from students and professors on campus
Thomas Pegelow Kaplan, a professor in the Jewish Studies department at CU Boulder, says he has seen white supremacy organizations pop up at many schools that he has taught at, from Davidson College to Appalachian State University.
Now at CU Boulder, he says that Ellis’ alleged association with Patriot Front doesn’t surprise him. According to Pegelow Kaplan, white supremacy and anti-semitism has become more mainstream. He believes it can be traced to a culture war reaching universities. He also attributes this to shifts under the current administration.
“Anti-semitism never went away, groups never went away. It’s just a different quality now, it’s much more acceptable,” he said. “You can speak out in public without any real consequences.”
Pegelow Kaplan says he hopes for conversations with campus police, increased academic discussion on anti-semitism and urges a strong response from university officials.
“It’s not just CU obviously, but much, much broader, not even national, but also transnational in many ways. It’s one of the stark realities, there’s so much networking among the far right,” he said.
Caleb Batts, a CU Boulder alum who graduated in 2024, was first made aware of the allegations against Ellis via an Instagram post from Boulder Students for Democratic Society.
After reading about the situation, Batts decided to reshare the post to his own social media, saying, “So is he going to be expelled this week or next week?”
He described seeing a hate group active on campus as “extremely saddening and disheartening.”
“Individually respond to him, expel him from campus to make a statement that Nazis are not welcome on our campus. I think that’s something that’s pretty easy and uncontroversial to do,” Batts said, describing what he hopes to see in the university’s response.
A spokesperson from the Black Student Alliance at CU Boulder said they were not very surprised by the allegations, due to similar instances in the past.
“I feel like it happens and then we just have to address it,” they said.
The BSA spokesperson reflected on how university administration has addressed similar instances in the past.
“I think CU has failed previously to act in haste and urgency in the past regarding students with alleged neo-Nazi ideologies with ties to anti semitism, anti blackness and white supremacist organizations.”
They said they believe the university does not take “strong enough stances” regarding these issues. They added that, due to the danger extremist groups like Patriot Front may pose to students, CU Boulder should investigate the allegations made against Ellis.
“Being in the Patriot front is a legitimate threat to all students,” they said. “It’s not just minority students, it’s also people who have different ideologies than him.”
CU Boulder spokesperson Mueksch did not share if the university was investigating the allegations made against Ellis.
“When college leaders publicly condemn extremism, they make it clear that antisemitism and hate is not welcome on campus, setting an important example to the wider community,” said an ADL Mountain States spokesperson.
Contact CU Independent Editor-In-Chief Greta Kerkhoff at greta.kerkhoff@colorado.edu
Contact CU Independent Managing Editor Satori Griffith at satori.griffith@colorado.edu
Contact CU Independent Special Investigations Editor Jessica Sachs at jessica.sachs@colorado.edu
Contact CU Independent News Editor Camryn Montgomery at camryn.montgomery@colorado.edu
Contact CU Independent News Editor Avery Clifton at avery.clifton@colorado.edu
Contact CU Independent News Editor Ainsley Coogan at ainsley.coogan@colorado.edu
