Georgia students flock to Turning Point USA after Charlie Kirk killing
The University of West Georgia’s Turning Point USA chapter had hit a rut.
Meeting attendance was low. Membership had stalled. Rebekah Bushmire, the chapter’s vice president, was wondering if the conservative student political activist organization was having any meaningful impact.
“We were questioning where we were at on campus, what God had in store for us,” said Bushmire, a sophomore. “Then after the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, we felt very much back in the fight.”
Since Kirk’s Sept. 10 killing on a Utah college campus, the group he founded in 2012 has seen a sharp rise in interest across the Peach State, according to chapter leaders.
UWG doubled its membership. The Georgia State University chapter tripled theirs. Georgia Tech’s received roughly 60 new membership requests. At the University of Georgia, chapter meetings are filling up lecture halls; the UGA Turning Point’s Instagram page that previously had roughly 3,200 followers now has 12,100.
“There were so many requests, requests, requests to join. That uptick was astonishing,” said Joe Nguyen, president of the GSU chapter. “But the death of Charlie Kirk was, I believe, transformative for them.”
Following a national rightward shift among young voters in the 2024 presidential election, the burst of engagement could present an opportunity for the GOP in the 2026 midterms and beyond, particularly because the phenomenon isn’t limited to Georgia.
More than 800 chapters have been started at universities nationwide since Sept. 10 — including 31 of the 42 chapters at Georgia colleges — and nearly 90,000 college students have joined their school’s organization, according to Turning Point USA.
Alex Birdsong is one of the new converts. The GSU sophomore had been thinking about joining his school’s chapter since his freshman year, but his heavy course load kept him too busy.
Kirk’s murder “was that extra step I needed just getting into the program,” said Birdsong. “I would love to spread not only his message, but the message of conservatism.”
That’s something Nguyen has been hearing a lot. “There’s this surge of energy. Like, ‘I want to do something for the movement. I want to do something for Turning Point USA,’” he said.
Chapter leaders are figuring out what that “something” will be. Some said they want to do more “tabling,” where they set up a booth on campus to connect with other students and, ideally, persuade them to join the movement.
“The thing we’re not sure about yet is whether this will be long-term or short-term growth,” said Chaston Atkins, treasurer of the UGA chapter.
Kennesaw State University political science professor Kerwin Swint has the same question. Students held a memorial on its main campus on Oct. 14, which would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday. He said inviting speakers to campus and doing more tabling can be good ways to grow the base. “But I think Charlie Kirk wanted to have an impact on elections,” Swint said. “A lot of the Turning Point USA chapters have been doing that, and I think that’s probably going to be their focus.”
If new members get involved with Republican campaigns and do “the hard work of politics” — such as knocking on doors and phone banking — the Turning Point surge could be electorally meaningful, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
But while young people have the politically valuable asset of “unlimited energy,” he cautioned that they can lose interest quickly. “Having people sign up for something when an issue or a personality is hot is different than attracting them long term,” said Sabato.
That’s something chapter leaders like Bushmire appear to be aware of. “We 100% want to be strategic about maintaining the momentum. We don’t want this to be a sporadic burst of excitement and have it fizzle out real quick,” she said.
Connor Land, who co-founded Georgia Tech’s Turning Point chapter in 2019, is optimistic. “I think you already see a shift in the political ideology of our youth. You’ve seen that in the 2024 election, but it’s nothing like what we’ve seen in the last week,” he said at the chapter’s vigil for Kirk in mid-September. “I think Gen Z will move closer to God, will join the conservative movement, will start Turning Point USA chapters across the country.”
The latter part of his prediction is already proving true.
“It’s a good sign for Republicans,” said Sabato. “But how good a sign remains to be seen.”
