Republican leaders at the state and national levels are propelling Turning Point USA, the conservative advocacy group co-founded by Charlie Kirk, further into K-12 schools following the activist’s assassination earlier this month.
The organization, which is known for its presence on college campuses, says it already has more than 1,000 chapters in high schools across the country and 48 representatives on staff meant to help students organize.
Since the 31-year-old’s death, Kirk’s allies have pledged to expand the group’s reach and impact, and the organization has reported a surge in new interest. It received 54,000 inquiries about starting new chapters within days of Kirk’s death, a Turning Point USA spokesperson told CNN last week.
Turning Point USA is also getting an assist from Republican leaders. The U.S. Department of Education last week announced it was partnering with the organization, along with dozens of other conservative groups, to launch a coalition to produce educational programming for schools and universities in advance of America’s 250th birthday next year.
And prior to announcing his resignation Wednesday, Oklahoma’s state education chief vowed this week to put a Turning Point USA chapter into every high school in his state as part of a partnership with the organization.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters—who has pursued a number of conservative causes in public schools, instructing schools to teach the Bible and ordering schools to show a video of him praying for Trump, for example—said it was an effort to “fight back against the liberal propaganda, pushed by the radical left, and the teachers’ unions.”
A news release from the state education department laid out instructions for students on how to start a local chapter.
“These are the highest levels of state and federal government dictating what students will receive in their grades nine through 12 years, and that runs counter to what we’ve been doing in this country,” said Amy Binder, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University who has studied and written extensively about how the left and right engage with students in campus politics.
“I suspect that the superintendent who says that he’s going to mandate that is not mandating Young Democratic Socialists of America chapters in the high schools as well,” she added.
Republican state leaders have also vowed to revoke the licenses of teachers over controversial posts about Kirk.
Turning Point USA did not respond to a request for an interview, though the chief education officer for Turning Point Education, Hutz Hertzberg, said in the U.S. Department of Education announcement of the new civics coalition that the group “is more resolved than ever to advance God-centered, virtuous education for students flourishing across our nation.”
How Turning Point USA appeals to young voters
For decades, politically conservative groups have developed an infrastructure to organize college students at off-campus locations, tell them they’re being indoctrinated on campus, coach them in activism, and help them network with others, Binder said.
By contrast, she said, politically liberal groups have engaged students directly on campus without the same focus on developing expansive, off-campus networks and attending conferences where students’ expenses are covered.
Turning Point USA meaningfully parlayed decades’ worth of Republican strategy into attracting younger people into the conservative fold.
Kirk used social media, podcasts, and YouTube in an attempt to meet young people where they are. In the process, he became a key ally of President Donald Trump.
Conservative youth activism is more likely to be sponsored by outside organizations, said Hava Gordon, a sociology professor at the University of Denver who has studied youth activism. Turning Point USA provides resources to help students secure teacher sponsors and craft campaigns—which is not typical for youth activism, particularly in high schools, she said.
Making it easier to establish chapters runs in direct contrast to what other student interest groups—such as gay-straight alliances, climate action groups, and student unions—have encountered, Gordon said.
It can be a battle for students to get school support, she said, especially amid Republican efforts that, for years, have sought to restrict educators’ discussions about sensitive political topics through “divisive concepts” laws that are in effect in at least 20 states.
“All of the sudden, we have the right arguing that youth activism is an urgent issue that has to happen when, in fact, most youth activists, I think, have been running into obstacles to organize on their their high school campuses,” she said.
Other organizations elsewhere on the political spectrum provide resources and programming for students and might have high school chapters. For instance, the ACLU this summer staged advocacy institutes that drew hundreds of high school students to Washington for discussion on presidential power, immigration, racial justice, and transgender rights, among other topics. The organization says it has seen a surge of interest during the Trump administration.
But those types of organizations do not use the same tactics as Turning Point USA, which include “teaching students how to be provocative on campus, how to have eyebrow-raised confrontational events on campus, how to invite provocative speakers on campus, how to get under the skin of liberals on campus,” Binder said.
Turning Point USA’s website shows its footprint across the United States, with activism hubs in each region. It describes itself as “promoting freedom-loving, American values. Students champion these initiatives by organizing into student-led chapters and activism hubs.”
The organization supplies an activism kit for local chapters, and provides online resources that include presentations, games, recommended publications, and activity sheets on topics like “Socialism Sus,” “Big gov scares” and “Taxes are shady.”
It shares videos on “hot topics” beyond those themes on “dealing with pushback,” “becoming a leader,” “Should children be able to transition?” and “Feminism, Therapy, and Gold Diggers: What’s Happening to American Women?”
Those resources are not meant to get into the policy weeds. They’re more to “catch people by the throat and get them on your side,” Binder said.
“They’re meant to capture imagination. They’re meant to be provocative. They’re meant to be kind of snarky and easily understood,” she said. “Building a cadre of future leaders who are policy wonks—that’s not what TPUSA is doing. That exists elsewhere in the right ecosystem, but that is definitely not what TPUSA is doing.”
Kirk’s efforts also focused in part on rooting out what he and allies considered left-wing bias in schools and colleges through creating a “professor watch list,” a school board watch list, and launching a private school network in response to “woke” curriculum in public schools. (Researchers have found there’s no rampant left-wing bias among public school teachers “indoctrinating” students into hating the country.)
Kirk’s efforts align with broader conservative pushes
Kirk and his allies realized their organizing and influence activities weren’t just about getting young people out to vote every few years. They’re about helping them construct their identities, Binder said.
“So that’s why they want to be not only on college campuses, but in high schools as well. And it’s effective,” Binder said. “I think the outpouring that we’re seeing now in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death is a real indicator that the ubiquity and the tone that they’ve used in their videos and their other appearances have been very effective in emotionally just getting the attention of young people.”
And there’s some historical precedent, Gordon said. Youth organizing around Republican Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign involved advocating for conservative values more broadly, and many of the activists involved went on to work in politics.
“The Trump administration is looking at Turning Point students as a future inroads into the conservative movement, into the Republican Party, and into Trumpism more specifically,” Gordon said.
