--- title: Yale Record Does Not Endorse Hillary Clinton for President description: The Yale University newspaper instead decided to comply with the tax code—not the Democratic candidate's 'exemplary leadership,' it says canonical: https://time.com/4547742/yale-record-hillary-clinton-endorsement/ author: IDEAS Desk article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-27T15:13:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:28:03.665Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Yale Record Strongly 'Does Not Endorse' Hillary Clinton og:description: In a very, very tax-compliant editorial og:url: https://time.com/4547742/yale-record-hillary-clinton-endorsement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d697c7a92acbfcd/6988abd297cdffc5cf6ae58d/hillary-clinton-yale-record-endorsement-president-tax-exempt.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Yale Record Strongly 'Does Not Endorse' Hillary Clinton twitter:description: In a very, very tax-compliant editorial twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d697c7a92acbfcd/6988abd297cdffc5cf6ae58d/hillary-clinton-yale-record-endorsement-president-tax-exempt.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Yale Record Swears It 'Does Not Endorse' Hillary Clinton by [IDEAS Desk](https://time.com/author/ideas-desk/) ## IDEAS Desk Oct 27, 2016 3:13 PM UTC  Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on during a campaign rally at Saint Anselm College on October 24, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on during a campaign rally at Saint Anselm College on October 24, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire.Justin Sullivan—Getty Images by [IDEAS Desk](https://time.com/author/ideas-desk/) ## IDEAS Desk Oct 27, 2016 3:13 PM UTC **Correction appended, Oct. 27.** A spate of publications that rarely endorse a presidential candidate have recently backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, as have many that have traditionally endorsed a Republican candidate. Until September, the [Dallas _Morning News_](http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2016/09/07/recommend-hillary-clinton-us-president) hadn’t endorsed a Democrat since 1940\. Until mid-October, the [Arizona _Republic_](http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2016/09/27/hillary-clinton-endorsement/91198668/) hadn’t endorsed a Democrat since its inception in 1890\. But the 144-year-old _Yale Record_, the university’s satire magazine, is _not one of those_. Nope. Nuh-uh. No sir, no way. Not gonna do it. In [an editorial](http://yalerecord.org/2016/10/26/the-yale-record-does-not-endorse-hillary-clinton/) published on Oct. 26, the humor publication’s editorial board writes: “_The Yale Record_ believes both candidates to be equally un-endorsable, due to our faithful compliance with the tax code.” The _Record_ claims in the editorial that it has “a strong commitment to being a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization,” which most student organizations are. To remain so, like religious organizations and the [Clinton Foundation](http://time.com/4546768/bill-clinton-inc-memo-reveals-tangled-business-charitable-ties/) and the _Yale Daily News_, the nonfictional college newspaper that [did endorse Clinton](http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/10/26/news-view-hillary-clinton-law-73-for-president/), [inspiring backlash for allegedly breaking tax code](http://yalerecord.org/2016/10/26/the-yale-record-does-not-endorse-hillary-clinton/), the _Record_ would need to follow a requirement [set by the Internal Revenue Service](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p557/ch03.html#en%5FUS%5F201602%5Fpublink1000200036) that “If any of the activities… of your organization consist of participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office, your organization will not qualify for tax-exempt status.” (There are other rules, too, [like how](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p557/ch03.html#en%5FUS%5F201602%5Fpublink1000257510) “If your organization provides an indoor tanning bed service, the \[Affordable Care Act\] imposed a 10% excise tax on services provided after June 30, 2010.”) Hence, as the board writes, the _Record_ shall not endorse “Hillary Clinton’s exemplary leadership” or the opportunity for “all citizens to shatter the glass ceiling once and for all by electing Secretary Clinton,” who earned a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1973\. Nor shall it endorse the Republican nominee, who the paper does not name. Instead, it will remain silent. At least between the lines. **Correction:** The original version of this story failed to note that the _Yale Record_ is a satirical publication. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4547742/yale-record-hillary-clinton-endorsement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4547742/yale-record-hillary-clinton-endorsement/"},"headline":"The Yale Record Swears It 'Does Not Endorse' Hillary Clinton","datePublished":"2016-10-27T15:13:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:28:03.665Z","description":"In a very, very tax-compliant editorial","url":"https://time.com/4547742/yale-record-hillary-clinton-endorsement/","keywords":["politics","College"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d697c7a92acbfcd/6988abd297cdffc5cf6ae58d/hillary-clinton-yale-record-endorsement-president-tax-exempt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"IDEAS Desk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ideas-desk/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d697c7a92acbfcd/6988abd297cdffc5cf6ae58d/hillary-clinton-yale-record-endorsement-president-tax-exempt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire","caption":"Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4547742/yale-record-hillary-clinton-endorsement/","name":"The Yale Record Swears It 'Does Not Endorse' Hillary Clinton"}}]}] ```