Turning Point USA

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Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is an American right-wing nonprofit organization founded by Charlie Kirk that advocates for limited government, free market capitalism and the Republican Party[1][2]. They work closely with PragerU.

In September of 2025 Erika Kirk, the widow of Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk, was appointed to succeed Mr. Kirk as CEO in the wake of his assassination.[3]

Formation and activities

Charlie Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012, when he was 18 years old. At the 2012 Republican National Convention, Kirk met Foster Friess, a prominent Republican donor, and persuaded him to finance the organation.[4][5] Friess also serves on the organization's advisory council, alongside Ginni Thomas, wife of US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.[6]

Turning Point holds several annual national conferences, including the Young Women's Leadership Summit (YWLS)[7] and the Young Latino Leadership Summit.[8] The National Rifle Association was the headline sponsor of the YWLS in 2017 and 2018.[7] According to The New York Times, YWLS "styles itself as an alternative to a liberal culture of feminism that many Republicans characterize as oppressive" and had by 2018 "evolved into an ultra-Trumpian event complete with 'lock her up' chants and vulgar T-shirts disparaging Hillary Clinton."[7] Candace Owens, who days prior to the 2018 conference stirred controversy by saying "the entire premise of #MeToo is that women are stupid, weak, and inconsequential", was greeted with a standing ovation at the conference.[7]

Since 2016, Turning Point USA has maintained a Professor Watchlist that lists college professors it alleges discriminate against conservative students and advance left-wing propaganda in the classroom.[9] The organization has also secretly attempted to influence student government elections in an effort to "combat liberalism on college and university campuses".[10][11]

Each of Turning Point's paid workers is supposed to meet a quota to make at least 1,500 student contacts per semester.[12] Student volunteers have several different themes for promoting conservative ideas, including "The Healthcare Games," "Game of Loans," and "iCapitalism."[13]

Turning Point USA is pro-military, pro-police, anti-feminist, and anti-Muslim.[14] They support fossil fuels and the National Rifle Association[15] and critical of scams such as Black Lives Matter.[16]

In February 2019, Turning Point established an internet presence in the United Kingdom,[17][18] having previously expanded to Canada[19].

Finances

Turning Point's revenues were $78,890 in 2012, $443,859 in 2013, $2,052,060 in 2014, $4,319,220 in 2015, and $8,248,059 in 2016.[20][21]

In addition to the seed money from billionaire Foster Friess, the family foundation of Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner donated $100,000 to Turning Point in 2014.[22]

The International Business Times[23] reported the following donors to Turning Point USA: Ed Uihlein Foundation, the Rauner Family Foundation, the Foglia Foundation, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus’ foundation, Henry and Lynde Bradley Foundation, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, named after the in-laws of current Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Foster Friess, Mike Leven, a TPUSA adviser and former CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, Illinois-based finance and Waste Management executive Peter Huizenga, Chicago jeweler and TPUSA adviser Mike Miller, Dunn's Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking, The Einhorn Family Foundation. TPUSA's event sponsors have included Prager University, the National Rifle Association, the Heritage Foundation, the Job Creators Network, and the Leadership Institute and Alliance Defending Freedom.[24]

In The New Yorker, Jane Mayer reported that Turning Point's budget was $8 million.[25]

Turning Point USA has donated $1.8 million to the Turning Point Endowment, an affiliated organization.[21]

Denial of recognition on campus

At Drake University, Turning Point was denied recognition as an official student organization based on student senate concerns that the organization has "a hateful record," "aggressive marketing" and "an unethical privacy concern."[26]

At Hagerstown Community College, a student's attempt to start a Turning Point group was initially blocked when the school said the organization duplicated an existing group. The student's lawsuit led to the school revising its policy on student organizations, clarifying that school funded groups will be denied if they duplicate existing groups while unfunded groups face no such restriction.[27]

In February 2017, Santa Clara University's student government voted to deny recognition for Turning Point as a campus organization.[28] As of March 2017, this decision was overturned by the Vice Provost for Student Life, and Turning Point has been recognized as a registered student organization.[29]

Wartburg College's student senate voted to deny Turning Point USA recognition in late November. The chapter was forced to make changes to its constitution after initially being denied approval.[30][31]

The Executive Board of the student union of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute[32] also voted on January 18, 2018 to deny the Turning Point USA chapter status as an officially recognized student organization.[33]

Involvement in student government

Turning Point USA has been involved in influencing student government elections at a number of colleges and universities.[34] Universities that have been targeted by this effort have included Ohio State University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of Maryland.

These claims led to conservative candidates at the University of Maryland withdrawing from student elections after failing to report assistance from Turning Point.[35] [36]

A private brochure, handed out only to Turning Point donors, highlighted the organization's alleged strategy to take over student governments at universities across the country, and included a list of every Turning Point-supported student who was elected to student government positions in the year 2017.

Turning Point said that it had helped more than 50 conservatives win elections to become student-body presidents. However, when Politico looked into Turning Point's claims, it found the "success rate to be considerably overstated. In fact, some of the students that Turning Point USA claimed to have backed flatly condemned the organization and said they'd never spoken to anyone who works for it.

Involvement in 2016 presidential election

In addition, several former employees and student volunteers for Turning Point claimed they had witnessed collusion between high-ranking Turning Point employees – including Kirk himself and top advisor Ginni Thomas – and the presidential campaigns of both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. The interactions included Kirk coordinating via email with two officials at a pro-Cruz super PAC to send student volunteers to work for the PAC in South Carolina, as well as two students being requested by Thomas herself, via voicemail, to distribute over 200 Cruz placards in Wisconsin.[37]

A former employee for Turning Point, who had been based in Florida, alleged that Turning Point had given the personal information of over 700 student supporters to an employee with Rubio's presidential campaign.[37]

In October 2016, Kirk participated in a Fox News event along with Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Lara Trump that had a pro-Donald Trump tone. A Turning Point staff member wrote on Facebook that students who attended the event would have their expenses covered. The event led tax experts to say the organization's conduct may have violated its tax-exempt status, a charge disputed by Turning Point.[34]

Founder the Late Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk

The group's founder was Charlie Kirk, in the wake of his assassination, his widow Erika Kirk is the current leader. Charlie Kirk, grew up in Prospect Heights, Illinois.[38] Kirk became politically active during high school. In his junior year of school in 2010, Kirk volunteered for the successful U.S. Senate campaign of Illinois Republican Mark Kirk (to whom he is not related).[39]

In 2012 when he was a high school senior, Kirk wrote an essay for Breitbart News alleging liberal bias in high school textbooks leading to an appearance on the Fox Business Network. At a subsequent speaking engagement at Benedictine University's "Youth Empowerment Day," Kirk met Bill Montgomery, a retiree more than 50 years his senior, who was then a Tea Party-backed legislative candidate. Montgomery encouraged Kirk to get engaged in political activism full-time. He subsequently founded Turning Point USA. At the 2012 Republican National Convention, Kirk met Foster Friess, a prominent Republican donor, and persuaded him to finance the organization.[5]

According to Kirk, he dreamed of attending the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, but his application was rejected.[40] According to The New Yorker.

Kirk took general education classes at Harper College, a local community college. He founded Turning Point USA while studying at Harper.[39]

Kirk addressed the 2016 Republican National Convention. In an interview with Wired magazine during the convention, Kirk said that while he "was not the world's biggest Donald Trump fan," he would vote for him, and that Trump's candidacy made Turning Point's mission more difficult.[41] The Dallas Morning News described Kirk as leading the "millennial assault" for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.[42]

Kirk wrote the 2018 book Campus Battlefield: How Conservatives Can WIN the Battle on Campus and Why It Matters. In a review for The Weekly Standard, Adam Rubenstein described the book as a "hot mess", "nothing more a marketing pitch for TPUSA" and said the "thin" book was "stuffed with reprintings of his tweets and quotes from others."[43]

In 2018, Kirk praised Kanye West for getting involved in politics and advocating for President Trump. Later that year when Taylor Swift endorsed a Democrat in the Tennessee Senate race, Kirk condemned her endorsement and told her to "stay away from politics."[44] Kirk suggested, that Swift had not written her endorsement.[45] Kirk said it was "ridiculous" for Swift to accuse Republican Marsha Blackburn of being hostile to women's rights; Blackburn has a well-documented history of anti-LGBT positions, which Swift cited in her endorsement.[45]

In December 2018, Kirk stated that protesters in France's "yellow vests" movement chanted "We want Trump." Kirk's statements were later repeated by President Trump. The videos in support of the statement were from a protest in London, not from the yellow vest movement in France.[46] He also stated that Cuba has lower life expectancy than the United States, while it may have a higher life expectancy, and that most of all jobs in the private sector in USA come from small businesses, while that number is less than 50%.[47]

Cultural critic James Wolcott has described Kirk as a Tucker Carlson "Mini-Me".[48]

Turning Point UK

Turning Point UK (TPUK) is a British offshoot of Turning Point USA,[49][50][51] set up to challenge left-wing political ideology perceived to be dominant in UK schools, colleges and universities.[52][53][54][55][56]

Turning Point UK's chairman is George Farmer[50][51] (fiance of Candace Owens)[57] and it employs several staff.[54]

The organization claims it has chapters at the universities of Sussex, Oxford, St Andrews, York, Warwick, Nottingham, King's College London, University College London, the London School of Economics and the University of the Arts London.[54] Like Turning Point USA, it does not disclose the identities of its donors.[54]

The group was launched in December 2018[54] by Kirk and Owens[57][58] at the Royal Automobile Club in London.[54] Among those attending the event were Andy Wigmore, Paul Joseph Watson and James Delingpole.[54][51] On the day of its social media launch in February 2019, MPs including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel tweeted supportive messages for the organisation,[50][51] while it was marked for criticism by left-wing British newspapers and their supporters[51][57] and the launch of its Twitter account was sabotaged by multiple parody accounts, including a few created by a ‘left-leaning student’ calling himself ‘Skeptical Seventh’.[58][59][60] There was also a protest from the charity Turning Point over potential confusion caused by similarities between the two names.[61]

Labour MP David Lammy has described Turning Point UK as evidence that “sinister forces are taking hold of our country” and that the Conservative Party “openly promotes hard-right, xenophobic bile”.[62]

See Also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Mele, Christopher (November 28, 2016), "Professor Watchlist Is Seen as Threat to Academic Freedom", The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/us/professor-watchlist-is-seen-as-threat-to-academic-freedom.html 
  2. ↑ Columbia professor targeted on 'watchlist' published by conservative group - Columbia Daily Spectator.
  3. ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2025/09/18/turning-point-usa-erika-kirk-ceo-chair-of-board/
  4. ↑ "This Boy Wonder Is Building the Conservative MoveOn.org in an Illinois Garage", May 7, 2015. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Nelson, Rebecca. "The 21-Year-Old Becoming a Major Player in Conservative Politics", March 25, 2015. 
  6. ↑ Advisory Council - Turning Point USA (en).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Herndon, Astead W.. "At Conservative Women's Conference, a Safe Space for Trumpism". (en) 
  8. ↑ Young Latino Leadership Summit. Turning Point USA.
  9. ↑ "New conservative 'watch list' targets professors for advancing 'leftist propaganda'". 
  10. ↑ Vasquez, Michael. "Inside a Stealth Plan for Political Influence", The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 7, 2017. (en-US) 
  11. ↑ Kamenetz, Anya (April 4, 2018) "Professors Are Targets In Online Culture Wars; Some Fight Back" NPR
  12. ↑ "This Boy Wonder Is Building the Conservative MoveOn.org in an Illinois Garage", May 7, 2015. 
  13. ↑ Turning Point: Is the Youth Vote Really All That Liberal?.
  14. ↑ Right-wing media exploit the death of an NFL player-turned-soldier to rebuke Colin Kaepernick (September 4, 2018). Retrieved on February 15, 2019.
  15. ↑ Mudde, Cas (April 7, 2018). I went inside a rightwing safe space to find out the truth about universities - Cas Mudde. Retrieved on February 15, 2019.
  16. ↑ "Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk Brings ‘Campus Clash’ Lecture to Cornell", October 15, 2018. Retrieved on February 15, 2019. 
  17. ↑ Turning Point UK (@TPointUK) - Twitter. Retrieved on February 15, 2019.
  18. ↑ Turning Point UK. Retrieved on February 15, 2019.
  19. ↑ https://turningpointcan.com/[Citation Needed]
  20. ↑ Staff (May 6, 2016) "Turning Point USA: Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax" (Form 990) GuideStar
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Markay, Lachlan (June 28, 2018) "Exclusive: Pro-Trump Group, Turning Point USA, Has Finances Revealed" Daily Beast
  22. ↑ Bernard Schoenburg: Rauner's foundation gave $100,000 to group developing conservative activists - The State Journal-Register.
  23. ↑ https://www.ibtimes.com/
  24. ↑ Kotch, Alex (November 28, 2017) "Who Funds Conservative Campus Group Turning Point USA? Donors Revealed" International Business Times
  25. ↑ Mayer, Jane (December 21, 2017). Allegations of Racial Bias and Illegal Campaign Activity at a Conservative Nonprofit That Seeks to Transform College Campuses.
  26. ↑ "Conservative students at Drake challenge denial as an organization". 
  27. ↑ Baker, Tamela. Herald-Mail Media, May 12, 2016. "Hagerstown Community College settles suit over political club". Accessed August 13, 2016.
  28. ↑ "Boiling Point Over Turning Point". (en-US) 
  29. ↑ University, Santa Clara. Information on Turning Point USA - Vice Provost for Student Life - Santa Clara University (en).
  30. ↑ Turning Point USA student organization denied (December 2, 2017). Retrieved on February 15, 2019.
  31. ↑ ""Turning Point USA" voted against at Wartburg College", KWWL, December 7, 2017. (en) 
  32. ↑ https://www.rpi.edu/
  33. ↑ https://poly.rpi.edu/2018/01/24/turning-point-denied/%7Cwork=The Rensselaer Polytechnic|date=January 24, 2018}}
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Vasquez, Michael. "Inside a Stealth Plan for Political Influence", The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 7, 2017. (en-US) 
  35. ↑ Snurr, Carrie (April 16, 2017). Conservative nonprofit linked to Unity Party has chapters at more than 1,000 universities.
  36. ↑ Vogel, Pam (March 17, 2017). The Conservative Dark-Money Groups Infiltrating Campus Politics. Media Matters for America.
  37. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :0
  38. ↑ Kirk, Charlie, and Hamachek, Brent (2016). Time for a Turning Point: Setting a Course Toward Free Markets and Limited Government for Future Generations. Simon and Schuster. 
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 "Perfect storm launches 19-year-old Wheeling native into political punditry", Daily Herald, April 29, 2013. 
  40. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :1
  41. ↑ "At the Republican Convention, Millennials Search for Signs of the Future", Wired, July 20, 2016. 
  42. ↑ "How two Dallas young guns helped deliver the White House to Trump", Dallas Morning News, November 11, 2016. 
  43. ↑ "Charlie Kirk's Campus Battlefield Is a Hot Mess", The Weekly Standard, 2018-10-10. (en) 
  44. ↑ Wilstein, Matt. "Fox Guests Want Taylor Swift to Shut Up, but Love Kanye’s MAGA Embrace", The Daily Beast, 2018-10-08. (en) 
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 "Conservative activist says on 'Fox and Friends' that Taylor Swift didn't write her own Instagram post endorsing Democratic politicians", Business Insider. (en) 
  46. ↑ No, French protesters are not chanting, 'We want Trump' (en) (2018-12-04).
  47. ↑ Anton Dybal. Debunking Charlie Kirk's Arguments At Politicon 2018 In Debate vs Hasan Piker. Askepticalhuman.com.
  48. ↑ Wolcott, James (February 6, 2019) "James Wolcott on the Shelf Life of a Deplorable" Vanity Fair
  49. ↑ Grant, Madeline. "The backlash against Turning Point UK rather proves its point; it's hard being a conservative on campus", The Daily Telegraph, 7 February 2019. (en-GB) 
  50. ↑ 50.0 50.1 50.2 "Tory MPs back youth group with apparent links to US far right", 4 February 2019. Retrieved on 4 February 2019. 
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 51.2 51.3 51.4 "Tory MPs voice support for new UK branch of ‘sinister’ right-wing US group", 4 February 2019. Retrieved on 2 February 2019. 
  52. ↑ Kindred, Alahna (4 February 2019). NO TURNING BACK What is Turning Point UK, does Jacob Rees-Mogg support it and why are they controversial?. The Sun. Retrieved on 5 February 2019.
  53. ↑ Turning Point UK May Make Politics On Campus More Bitter And Polarised Than Ever Before (5 February 2019). Retrieved on 5 February 2019.
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 54.2 54.3 54.4 54.5 54.6 van der Merwe, Ben. "Right-wing dark money comes to Oxford student politics", 28 January 2019. Retrieved on 5 February 2019. 
  55. ↑ "The wrong Turning Point", 4 February 2019. Retrieved on 4 February 2019. 
  56. ↑ The UK launch of right-wing youth group Turning Point is going about as well as expected. New Statesman. Retrieved on 4 February 2019.
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 57.2 Barnes, Luke (4 February 2019). Turning Point USA launches British chapter to rocky reception. ThinkProgress. Retrieved on 5 February 2019.
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 Turning Point's UK launch beset by memes (4 February 2019). Retrieved on 5 February 2019.
  59. ↑ Waters, Lowenna. "Turning Point's UK Twitter launch has gotten off to an exceedingly bad start", The Independent, 5 February 2019. Retrieved on 6 February 2019. 
  60. ↑ Volpicelli, Gian. "How an army of farcical fakes ruined Turning Point UK's big day", Wired UK, 6 February 2019. 
  61. ↑ "The battle over Britain's newest student movement", BBC News, 9 February 2019. Retrieved on 9 February 2019. 
  62. ↑ Brown, David. "Right-wing student leader Charlie Kirk will tour UK universities", The Times, 6 February 2019. Retrieved on 6 February 2019. (en) Template:Paywall
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