Turning Point USA
Turning Point USA, Inc. 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 affiliate groups include Turning Point Endowment, Turning Point Action and TPUSA Faith. TPUSA has been described as the fastest growing organization of campus chapters in America and one of the most powerful conservative youth groups in the nation.
In 2016, the organization launched Professor Watchlist, a website that lists academic staff that, according to TPUSA, "discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom." TPUSA has attempted to influence student government elections in an effort to "combat modern liberalism on college and university campuses." In 2021, TPUSA started its School Board Watchlist website, which publishes names and photos of school board members who have adopted mask mandates or anti-racist curricula.
Though aligned with the Christian right, TPUSA has led its operations separate from traditional conservative organizations nationwide. TPUSA hosts several annual conferences, including the Student Action Summit, Young Women's Leadership Summit, Young Black Leadership Summit, and AmericaFest. The organization is funded by conservative donors and foundations, including Republican Party politicians.
History
In May 2012, 18-year-old Charlie Kirk gave a speech at Benedictine University's Youth Government Day. Impressed, retired marketing entrepreneur and Tea Party activist Bill Montgomery encouraged Kirk to postpone college and engage full-time in political activism. A month later, the day after Kirk graduated from high school, they launched Turning Point USA, a section 501 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 make a "five-figure" donation to the organization. Friess also was 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, was a key advisor as of 2019.
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 funneled "thousands of dollars" into student governments to elect conservatives. Donors include Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, former Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, Richard Uihlein, and the Donors Trust on behalf of private donors.
In March 2023, it was announced via Twitter by Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens that the BLEXIT Foundation and TPUSA have partnered. BLEXIT would be incorporating their message through TPUSA's branding style and corporate structure, while retaining Candace Owens and Brandon Tatum in leadership roles. On September 10, 2025, co-founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, during what would have been a series of events planned by the organization. On September 18, 2025, Kirk's widow Erika was selected to succeed Kirk as CEO.
Leadership and associates
Charlie Kirk
Kirk was CEO, chief fundraiser, and the public face of Turning Point USA from its founding until his assassination in September 2025. The New York Times credits him with turning the organization into a "well-funded media operation, backed by conservative megadonors like the Wyoming businessman Foster Friess." Michael Beckel, from the funding watchdog group Issue One, found that oftentimes these megadonors used "dark money vehicles to keep identities out of the limelight."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 his task 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 TPUSA claimed they had witnessed collusion between high-ranking TPUSA 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 TPUSA, who had been based in Florida, alleged that TPUSA 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 TPUSA 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 TPUSA. In 2019, 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".
Kirk was assassinated on September 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University for an event on the TPUSA-sponsored American Comeback Tour. At the time of Kirk's death, his annual salary at Turning Point USA was estimated to be "more than ".
Erika Kirk
Following Charlie Kirk's death, his widow, Erika, vowed that she would make Turning Point "the biggest thing this nation has ever seen." On September 18, 2025, Turning Point's board unanimously elected Erika as the organization's CEO.Bill Montgomery
Bill Montgomery was a marketing entrepreneur and onetime participant in the Tea Party movement. He launched Turning Point USA with Kirk in 2012 and was the organization's secretary and treasurer until April 2020. Montgomery died of complications resulting from contracting COVID-19 in July 2020.Tyler Bowyer
Tyler Bowyer became the organization's chief operating officer in 2017.Rob McCoy
Rob McCoy was Charlie Kirk's pastor and is credited with helping launch Turning Point USA Faith. He is a Pentecostal pastor in the Calvary Chapel Association and aligned with the Christian right. McCoy encouraged Kirk to amalgamate Christianity and social conservatism.Others
In February 2019, Turning Point USA 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 TPUSA 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.Also 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. After the screenshots were published, Kashuv acknowledged that his comments were "callous and inflammatory". In 2019, Alex Clark became the host of POPlitics. In 2021, political activist Jack Posobiec joined TPUSA to host the show Human Events Daily.
Activities
The New York Times has referred to TPUSA as the nation's "pre-eminent conservative youth organization". The organization says its mission is "to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government". TPUSA has chapters at over 850 campuses that register students to vote. Each of TPUSA's paid workers is supposed to meet a quota to make at least 1,500 student contacts per semester. Student volunteers have several different themes for promoting conservative ideas, including "The Healthcare Games", "Game of Loans", and "iCapitalism". According to The Washington Post, TPUSA centers "group membership on making provocative claims and publicly inciting outrage".Turning Point USA supports the NRA and the use of fossil fuels, and opposes political movements such as Black Lives Matter. Turning Point USA and Turning Point UK promote the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory and said they are working to "combat it" in universities. Kirk described universities as "islands of totalitarianism".