Actually...
"Francis P. Blair, one of the Republican Party’s founders, owned slaves while he presided over the 1856 Republican convention and was a delegate in 1860, Kruse said.
Benjamin Burton, who served twice as a state legislator in Delaware under the Whig party before becoming a Republican later in life, also owned slaves, according to his
obituary. In fact, his 28 slaves
made him Delaware’s leading slave-owner.
Blair and Burton were not the only two. After conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza made a similar claim on
Twitter, Kruse and other historians on Twitter
identified eight more prominent Republicans who also owned slaves in 1860.
"As to no Republicans ever owning slaves, I was wrong, and I've corrected it on social media," Elder said in a statement to PolitiFact. "There were at least 10."
You know it would be so easy for folks to just do a little research and avoid looking stupid.