Turning Point USA

Turning Point USA (TPUSA), or Turning Point, is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses. It was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery. TPUSA's sister organizations include Turning Point Endowment, Turning Point Action, Students for Trump, and Turning Point Faith. TPUSA has been described as the fastest growing organization of campus chapters in America, and according to ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', TPUSA "is now the dominant force in campus conservatism".

TPUSA has been involved in multiple controversies, including allegations of racism and criticism from other conservatives groups and figures.

The organization is known for its Professor Watchlist, a site that claims to expose professors that TPUSA says "discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom". According to ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', TPUSA has attempted to influence student government elections in an effort to "combat liberalism on college and university campuses." In 2021, TPUSA started the School Board Watchlist website. It publishes the names and photos of school board members who have adopted mask mandates or anti-racist curricula.

TPUSA annually hosts several conferences on various topics throughout the year, such as the Student Action Summit, Young Women's Leadership Summit, Young Black Leadership Summit, AmericaFest, and Young Latino Leadership Summit. The organization is funded by conservative donors and foundations, including Republican Party politicians.

History

At Youth Government Day in 2012, 18-year old Charlie Kirk gave a speech at Benedictine University. Impressed by the teenager, seasoned political operative Bill Montgomery encouraged Kirk to postpone college and engage full-time in political activism. In June 2012, the day after Charlie Kirk graduated from high school, he founded Turning Point USA, a section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Montgomery became Kirk's mentor, and worked behind the scenes handling the paperwork for the organization. Montgomery often described himself as the group's co-founder, although it was not an official recognition by the group or Kirk.

At the 2012 Republican National Convention, Kirk met Foster Friess, a Republican donor, and persuaded him to finance the organization. Friess also serves on the organization's advisory council, alongside Ginni Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Barry Russell, president and CEO of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), is a key advisor.

Between July 2016 and June 2017, the organization raised in excess of US$8.2 million. The same year, leaked records found that the group had funnelled "thousands of dollars" into student governments to elect conservatives. Donors include Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, former Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, Richard Uihlein on behalf of private donors.

In February 2018, the University of South Florida chapter of TPUSA was dissolved when it was discovered that its president, Aida Vazquez-Soto, was working with a pro-Palestinian group. Vazquez-Soto said, "Something is clearly wrong with an organization that felt that somehow by silencing me they could deal with the problem at hand."

TPUSA says its mission is "to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government".

Leadership and associates

Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk is a Republican activist.

In a 2015 speech at the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley, Kirk said that he had applied to the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and was not accepted. He said that "the slot he considered his went to 'a far less-qualified candidate of a different gender and a different persuasion'" whose test scores he claimed he knew. In 2017 he told ''The New Yorker'' that he was being sarcastic when he said it, and at a New Hampshire Turning Point event featuring Senator Rand Paul in October 2019 he claimed that he never said it.

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. He spent the rest of the 2016 presidential campaign assisting with travel and media arrangements and running errands for Donald Trump Jr.

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. 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.

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.

In 2019, Charlie Kirk became CEO of Students for Trump. In 2020, he was a keynote speaker on the first day of the Republican National Convention, calling President Donald Trump the "bodyguard of western civilization."

Bill Montgomery

Montgomery (1940–2020) was a marketing entrepreneur and onetime participant in the Tea Party movement. He launched Turning Point with Kirk in 2012 and served as the organization's secretary and treasurer until April 2020.

Montgomery died of complications resulting from contracting COVID-19 in July 2020.

Tyler Bowyer

Bowyer became the organizations's chief operating officer (COO) in 2017. He graduated from Arizona State University in 2012 with a bachelor's degree. He was chairman of the Republican Party of Maricopa County, AZ, for two years before joining TPU as regional manager in 2015. Bowyer also oversees Students for Trump. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and part of an effort in August 2020 to launch a "Latter-day Saints for Trump" coalition.

Others

In February 2019, Turning Point hired Benny Johnson as chief creative officer. Johnson had been fired by BuzzFeed for plagiarism in 2014 and suspended by the Independent Journal Review in 2017 for publishing a conspiracy theory about Barack Obama.

In May 2019, communications director Candace Owens resigned after controversial remarks she made in December 2018 were publicized and some Turning Point campus chapters called for her resignation. She had said in a speech at a conservative event in London that "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." She later stated that "leftist journalists" had mischaracterized her statement.

In May 2019, it was reported that TPUSA's director for high school outreach, Kyle Kashuv, had previously used racially inflammatory language in a Google Document. Kashuv resigned from TPUSA hours after his former classmates threatened to make the screenshots from the document public. Almost a week after the screenshots were published, Kashuv acknowledged that his comments were "callous and inflammatory".

In 2021, political activist Jack Posobiec joined TPUSA to host the show ''Human Events Daily''.

Finances

Turning Point USA receives funding from a cohort of conservative and right-wing donors and foundations, including several Republican politicians. According to the Center for Media and Democracy, donors include:

* Marcus Foundation ( Bernard Marcus): $1,573,000 in 201518
* Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner: $100,000 in 2014
* Darwin Deason: $510,000 in 2014
* Ed Uihlein Family Foundation (Richard Uihlein

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