Turning Point USA

Based on Wikipedia: Turning Point USA

On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University. He was 31 years old, the founder and face of one of the most influential conservative youth organizations in American history, and earning over $407,000 annually from the nonprofit he had launched the day after graduating high school. Eight days later, his widow Erika was unanimously elected to replace him as CEO. She vowed to make Turning Point USA "the biggest thing this nation has ever seen."

This is the story of how a teenager who skipped college built a political machine that now operates on more than 850 campuses across America.

The Accidental Empire

It started with a speech at a high school government day event.

In May 2012, eighteen-year-old Charlie Kirk addressed students at Benedictine University in Illinois. In the audience sat Bill Montgomery, a retired marketing entrepreneur in his early seventies who had become active in the Tea Party movement—that wave of conservative grassroots activism that had swept through American politics in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the election of Barack Obama.

Montgomery saw something in the teenager. He encouraged Kirk to skip college entirely and dive straight into political activism. This was unusual advice. The conventional wisdom has always been that you need credentials, connections, and experience before you can build anything meaningful in politics. Montgomery disagreed. He offered to handle the paperwork and administrative burden while Kirk became the public face of their new venture.

A month later, the day after Kirk's high school graduation, they filed the paperwork for Turning Point USA as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The designation matters: it meant donations would be tax-deductible, but it also meant the organization was supposed to be nonpartisan and educational rather than directly political. This tension between the legal requirements of nonprofit status and the partisan reality of their work would follow Turning Point throughout its history.

Building the Machine

Kirk proved to be a natural fundraiser. At the 2012 Republican National Convention, just months after founding the organization, he met Foster Friess—a wealthy Republican donor who had bankrolled Rick Santorum's presidential campaign earlier that year. Kirk convinced Friess to make a "five-figure" donation to an organization run by an eighteen-year-old with no track record. Friess later joined the organization's advisory council.

He wasn't the only powerful figure to take interest. Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, also served on the advisory council. Barry Russell, who ran the Independent Petroleum Association of America, became a key advisor. The organization attracted money from Bernard Marcus, who co-founded Home Depot; Bruce Rauner, who would become governor of Illinois; and Richard Uihlein, a packaging magnate and major Republican donor.

Much of this money flowed through what campaign finance watchdogs call "dark money vehicles"—organizations structured to keep donor identities hidden from public view. Michael Beckel, from the funding watchdog group Issue One, found that megadonors frequently used these structures to support Turning Point while staying out of the spotlight.

Between July 2016 and June 2017, the organization raised more than $8.2 million.

The Campus Strategy

Turning Point's official mission is "to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government." In practice, this meant building a network of campus chapters designed to shift the political culture of American higher education.

The organization developed a distinctive approach. Each paid staff member was expected to make at least 1,500 student contacts per semester—a sales quota applied to political organizing. Student volunteers ran campaigns with names like "The Healthcare Games," "Game of Loans," and "iCapitalism," designed to make conservative economic arguments feel culturally relevant to young people.

But Turning Point wasn't just about persuasion. Leaked records revealed that the organization had funneled "thousands of dollars" into student government elections to help elect conservatives. This raised questions about whether a tax-exempt educational nonprofit should be intervening in campus elections.

The Washington Post characterized the organization's approach as centering "group membership on making provocative claims and publicly inciting outrage." This was a feature, not a bug. In an era when social media rewards conflict and controversy, Turning Point discovered that being attacked by liberals was good for fundraising and recruitment.

The Professor Watchlist

In November 2016, just after Donald Trump's election, Turning Point launched one of its most controversial initiatives: the Professor Watchlist.

The website catalogued college professors who, according to Turning Point, "discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values, and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom." Within weeks, more than 250 professors had been added to the list.

Critics pointed out significant problems with the list's accuracy. Politico reported that many entries contained errors, including professors listed for things they hadn't actually said or done, or professors included simply for being rude to students or making "clever remarks" about Trump.

A Turning Point official defended the list by explaining they were "simply aggregating" academics who had been subject to news reports. He called it "a beautiful example of freedom of speech"—professors could say what they wanted, others could report it, and Turning Point could compile the reports.

The practical effects could be severe. In October 2023, an English instructor at Arizona State University who had been listed on the Professor Watchlist was followed across campus by a two-person Turning Point crew asking accusatory questions. The confrontation ended with the instructor, David Boyles, being pushed onto concrete from behind. He said his facial wounds were "relatively minor," but the university president blamed Turning Point for harassment and violence.

Kirk himself described universities as "islands of totalitarianism"—a dramatic characterization of institutions that many conservatives believe have become hostile to their views.

The Trump Connection

Donald Trump's emergence as a political force in 2015 and 2016 created both opportunities and complications for Turning Point.

In an interview with Wired magazine at the 2016 Republican National Convention, Kirk admitted he "was not the world's biggest Donald Trump fan" but said he would vote for him. He acknowledged that Trump's candidacy made his work more difficult—the businessman's combative style and lack of policy depth didn't fit neatly with Turning Point's emphasis on free-market principles.

Yet Kirk spent the rest of the campaign helping with travel, media arrangements, and running errands for Donald Trump Jr. The relationship would prove durable. By 2019, Kirk had become CEO of Students for Trump, and in 2020 he delivered a keynote address on the first night of the Republican National Convention, calling President Trump "the bodyguard of western civilization."

This coziness with the Trump campaign raised legal questions. Several former employees and student volunteers alleged they had witnessed coordination between high-ranking Turning Point staff—including Kirk and advisor Ginni Thomas—and presidential campaigns during the 2016 primaries. The allegations included Kirk coordinating via email with a pro-Ted Cruz super Political Action Committee to send student volunteers, Thomas requesting via voicemail that students distribute Cruz campaign materials, and a Florida-based Turning Point employee allegedly giving personal information of more than 700 student supporters to Marco Rubio's campaign.

In October 2016, Kirk participated in a Fox News event alongside Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Lara Trump. A Turning Point staff member posted on Facebook that students attending would have their expenses covered. Tax experts said this conduct may have violated the organization's tax-exempt status. Turning Point disputed the claim.

The Conference Circuit

Over time, Turning Point developed an extensive calendar of national conferences designed to energize conservative activists and build the organization's brand.

The Student Action Summit brings together high school and college students from all 50 states for networking, leadership workshops, and speeches from conservative luminaries. The 2025 summit drew 5,000 attendees to Tampa, with speakers including Border Czar Tom Homan, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump Jr., and Tucker Carlson.

The Young Women's Leadership Summit, which has run for a decade, combines prayer circles and brunches with forums on topics like "God's design in your career." The New York Times described the programming as focusing more on "dating, parenting and nutrition advice" than policy. The 2025 summit drew over 3,000 women to a resort in Texas. The event explicitly encourages women to get married, have children, and become homemakers.

The summit has evolved in tone over the years. By 2018, the Times characterized it as "an ultra-Trumpian event complete with 'lock her up' chants and vulgar T-shirts disparaging Hillary Clinton." The National Rifle Association served as headline sponsor in 2017 and 2018.

AmericaFest, launched in December 2021, expanded beyond students to become a broader conservative gathering. The inaugural event featured Donald Trump Jr. and Sarah Palin alongside country music acts. It also featured Kyle Rittenhouse, who had just been acquitted of murder charges in connection with the Kenosha shootings, receiving a standing ovation.

The 2024 AmericaFest in Phoenix illustrated both the growth and the tensions within the conservative movement. Speakers included Donald Trump himself, Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, and—notably—Cenk Uygur, a progressive commentator. The conference also exposed rifts: Tucker Carlson and, to a lesser extent, white nationalist Nick Fuentes clashed publicly with Ben Shapiro over Israel policy.

Personnel Troubles

Turning Point's rapid growth came with personnel challenges that repeatedly made headlines.

In February 2019, the organization hired Benny Johnson as chief creative officer. Johnson had been fired by BuzzFeed in 2014 for plagiarism and suspended by the Independent Journal Review in 2017 for publishing a conspiracy theory about Barack Obama. The hire signaled that Turning Point valued media savvy and viral content creation over traditional journalistic standards.

Communications director Candace Owens resigned in May 2019 after controversial remarks she had made months earlier received renewed attention. At a conservative event in London in December 2018, Owens had said: "If Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay fine. The problem is... he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize." Some Turning Point campus chapters called for her resignation. Owens blamed "leftist journalists" for mischaracterizing her statement.

Owens would later return to Turning Point's orbit. In March 2023, her BLEXIT Foundation—an organization aimed at encouraging Black Americans to leave the Democratic Party—formally partnered with Turning Point, adopting its branding while Owens and co-founder Brandon Tatum retained leadership roles.

Also in May 2019, Kyle Kashuv, Turning Point's director of high school outreach and a survivor of the Parkland school shooting who had become a prominent conservative voice, resigned hours after former classmates threatened to publish screenshots showing he had used racially inflammatory language in a Google document. After the screenshots became public, Kashuv acknowledged his comments were "callous and inflammatory."

The Ideology

What does Turning Point actually believe?

The organization supports the National Rifle Association and the use of fossil fuels. It opposes movements like Black Lives Matter. Both Turning Point USA and its British affiliate, Turning Point UK, have promoted the "Cultural Marxism" conspiracy theory—the idea that Marxist academics have systematically infiltrated Western institutions to undermine traditional values. The organizations say they are working to "combat" this supposed influence in universities.

In 2021, Turning Point launched a School Board Watchlist, publishing names and photographs of school board members who had adopted mask mandates or what the organization described as "anti-racist curricula." This reflected the broader conservative turn toward school board politics during the COVID-19 pandemic, when battles over masks, vaccines, and the teaching of race became central flashpoints in American culture wars.

The organization positions itself as aligned with the Christian right, though it has operated largely independently of traditional conservative religious organizations. Charlie Kirk's pastor, Rob McCoy—a Pentecostal minister in the Calvary Chapel Association—is credited with helping launch Turning Point USA Faith and encouraging Kirk to fuse Christianity with social conservatism.

Death and Succession

Bill Montgomery, the retired entrepreneur who had encouraged an eighteen-year-old to skip college and helped him launch Turning Point, died in July 2020 from complications of COVID-19. He was eighty years old and had served as the organization's secretary and treasurer until April of that year.

Five years later, the organization would face a far more dramatic succession crisis.

Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University as part of Turning Point's American Comeback Tour. He had led the organization for thirteen years, transforming it from a two-person operation into what the New York Times called "a well-funded media operation" and the nation's "pre-eminent conservative youth organization."

Eight days after his death, Turning Point's board unanimously elected his widow Erika as CEO. She had spoken alongside her husband at conferences and was a known presence within the organization. Her pledge to make Turning Point "the biggest thing this nation has ever seen" suggested the organization would continue its aggressive expansion rather than fade after its founder's death.

The Larger Picture

Turning Point USA represents something new in American politics: a youth political organization built for the social media age, optimized for controversy and viral moments, and funded by some of the wealthiest donors in Republican politics.

Its methods—the Professor Watchlist, the student government interventions, the conferences that double as media events—reflect a strategy of permanent political combat. The organization's success has inspired imitators on both left and right, and its alumni have moved into media, politics, and other conservative organizations.

Whether this represents the future of political organizing or a phenomenon tied to specific personalities and a specific moment in American politics remains to be seen. What is clear is that a teenager who skipped college built something that outlasted him—and that his widow intends to make it even larger.