Dialogue or Division?: New Turning Point USA Chapter Creates Mass Controversy 

Chloe Wright, Executive Editor

The controversial right-wing group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) has recruited a Sewanee undergraduate student to found a chapter on campus. That has some students and faculty in an uproar because of the national group’s watchlist shaming professors as well as its divisive political tactics. 

President Lillian Rourk (C ‘27) said she decided to form the chapter after following the organization on social media, and a paid regional TPUSA recruiter contacted her because she had signed up for TPUSA’s mailing list. Rourk told The Sewanee Purple that she felt compelled to work with the recruiter, who she declined to identify, because she felt isolated on campus due to her conservative views. 

Rourk recalled one social interaction where she showed interest in being a stay-at-home mother and her friends criticized her. “That’s what I want,” she said. “I don’t criticize you for wanting what you want.”

Sewanee’s TPUSA chapter’s stated mission in its newly drafted charter is to “educate students about the importance of fiscal responsibility, free markets and constitutional rights through innovative campus activism and nonpartisan, thought-provoking discussion.” Its leaders said the group aims to host speakers, table on campus and provide a space for right-wing views that has been previously absent on campus. “The goal is to have dialogue between all people,” said Rourk, an English and music major. “It’s not just to promote one thing, it’s to stimulate conversation and a community who think differently and to share what we believe and to hear what others believe.” 

But some Sewanee students and faculty say they distrust the national organization’s contentious history, which includes its Professor Watchlist, founder and CEO Charlie Kirk’s words and actions and TPUSA’s ties to the Republican party. 

TPUSA’s website explicitly states that it is nonpartisan and nonprofit. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, it is prohibited by federal law from direct or indirect involvement in political campaigns. TPUSA relies on undisclosed contributions, also called dark money, and its nonprofit status has been questioned because of alleged illegal political activity. In the 2016 presidential race, news reports detailed TPUSA’s campaign work for Donald Trump. In January, a fiercely contested Wisconsin state supreme court race featured TPUSA sponsored events with Donald Trump Jr., as well as canvassers paid by Turning Point’s affiliated Political Action Committee going door-to-door for the losing Republican candidate, according to National Public Radio, the New Yorker and other news organizations. 

Classics major Betsy Baker (C ‘27) said she sees a conflict between Sewanee’s culture and TPUSA’s mission. “[EQB] includes things like academic freedom and intellectual exchange and respecting the dignity of all people,” she said. “I’ll just say Turning Point USA often fails to meet those standards…It is an organization that is interested in surveillance.”

Assistant Politics Professor Sid Simpson said the watchlist on the group’s national website appears to invalidate the group’s stated mission. “If the idea is to create sort of a space for conservative thought and also a space in which conservatives can have their thoughts challenged and engage in meaningful debate, I don’t think that you can say that in good faith if part of the organization that’s sponsoring that club also has a watch list.”

Simpson also questioned some TPUSA Sewanee students’ assertions that conservative views are under threat at Sewanee. “I have no sense of that being true either in my classrooms or in any of my colleagues’ classrooms,” he said. “What I understand is conservative students oftentimes do really want to engage and do talk a lot. And there’s a lot of good conversation to be had.” 

The TPUSA group prompted some concerned conversation at Sewanee’s bi-monthly Dinner and Dialogue event on April 7. 

While that and other campus programs aim to bring the community together, Rourk said she believes TPUSA offers something more. “It’s more than just dialogue. It’s also about education.” Sewanee TPUSA member Walker McKay (C ‘25), a forestry major, was dismissive of Dinner and Dialogue’s claims to welcome all views. “I had never really heard of [Dinner and Dialogue],” whose events he called “echo chambers for a sort of liberal propaganda thing.” 

TPUSA’s first public appearance at Sewanee came on March 20, when two TPUSA representatives tabled in Spencer Quad. Though late winter weather drove them out, Rourk said they got enough interest. Rourk and Jefferson’s charter was signed that day. 

Chapter members hung TPUSA posters around Gailor Hall and the library with slogans such as “spilling the tea since 1773” and “I will not apologize for my patriotism.” Each poster had a QR code link to a GroupMe.

Their initial GroupMe icon was President Donald Trump’s mugshot, and it was initially private. Rourk said the Tennessee field representative advised the chapter GroupMe and Instagram to stay private until they received an official TPUSA logo. 

Other fliers headlined “What does TPUSA do?” appeared around campus, bearing QR codes linking to sites about the group’s practices. One led to a ProPublica 990 nonprofit tax returns summarizing the group’s 2023 tax filing, which reported $81.7 million in revenues, $20.2 million in assets and $91.4 million in expenses; another linked to a critical article in The Guardian. The person responsible for those fliers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said their goal was to offer unbiased information.

Sewanee’s anonymous YikYak site was soon abuzz. One post begged for names of people in the group’s chat so they could decide “who I need to stop talking to.” The chapter leaders’ identities appeared on another post, and students claiming to be Theta Pis tried to distance their sorority from TPUSA’s vice president, Elizabeth Jefferson (C ’27) and Emma Sameth (C ’27), a biology major who was initially named as the group’s secretary but withdrew from the post because of time commitments. “We do not support or associate with turning point usa [sic],” that YikYak post stated. “These 2 girls do not represent our 140+ person org. Please do not associate us with them. Thanks!” 

Jefferson said that was “the saddest thing” about the campus reaction. 

Dr. Christopher Conn, a philosophy professor who agreed to be Sewanee’s TPUSA’s faculty advisor, told the Purple that he was confused by the backlash. “We would all be better off as a community of free inquiry, a community that’s committed to fostering citizenship,” he said. “Part of being a good citizen is understanding what the core issues are of your republic, so I don’t see any downside here.”

At the chapter’s first meeting, on March 27, 18 students—some pro and some anti-TPUSA—crowded into a second-floor Walsh-Ellett classroom. Jefferson, a biology major on the pre-med track, opened the meeting by addressing the campus’s opinion. “I think there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding,” she said, followed by a roar of laughter. 

Rourk and Jefferson insisted that the group is nonpartisan and wants to unify rather than divide. 

McKay said Sewanee needed TPUSA because he and other conservatives felt suppressed. “The so-called ‘tolerant left’ has been absolutely intolerant of anybody who doesn’t believe in whatever they believe in. This is where the dialogue is so important. This is not a hate organization. This is a dialogue organization from people who want to have genuine conversation.”

Politics major Lillian Holloway (C ‘25) disagreed. “I’ve been in classrooms where people have talked about women in misogynistic ways and have said the gambit of things and been pro-capitalist, which is what Turning Point says it is supposed to do,” they said. “I respect that it feels that way, but I personally have felt that way in the opposite direction, and so I think it’s just a little silly.”

TPUSA proponents pointed out that their posters were torn down within 24 hours. “We spent our money printing those,” Rourk said. “That wasn’t cool.”

At the group’s second meeting, attended by five supporters and three opponents, Rourk again addressed campus concerns.

Holloway asked Sewanee’s chapter plans to contribute to the TPUSA’s professor watchlist. Rourk responded that the list has been misrepresented and professor entries on TPUSA’s website require confirmation from news articles. “I love all the professors here so much,” she said. “If you actually go in and read [the list], you can actually see it’s horrible things. And I don’t think any of our Sewanee professors would do that.” 

TPUSA’s online watchlist currently lists no Sewanee professors. It states that anyone can “submit a tip” to report any professor who discriminates against right-wing students or “advance[s] leftist propaganda.” The watchlist’s hundreds of entries include professors’ names, photos and institutions, along with some University’s phone numbers and encouragement to call. For instance, one Princeton professor is on the list for admiring how Black Lives Matter leaders have sometimes used Black feminist rhetoric and acknowledging the intersections of gender, class and race. And an Arizona State professor is there, too, for teaching “black reason” and analyzing police brutality through an academic lens. 

In response to Rourk, Maeve Mehigan (C ‘25), an English major who wore a Bernie 2020 shirt, told the group that professors have been placed on the organization’s national watchlist for “teaching subjects that have to do with diversity. Or, like, saying, ‘White people have been racist before.’ So, is that a horrible thing?”

Rourk and Jefferson said they would look into those concerns. Jefferson welcomed such  challenges. “I think it’s great for people who may have differing opinions to come in and talk. ‘Cause, again, that’s what we’re trying to promote. So, I appreciated it. I also can appreciate their concerns, I think they’re very valid.”

Conn told the Purple that in principle, a watchlist wasn’t a bad idea “if there are faculty that are abusing their power, that are engaging in unprofessional behavior towards students because of their views.” But he added that he would object “if there are people on that list because of their commitments or their views.”

Rourk and Jefferson said the Sewanee chapter plans to apply in the fall to Sewanee’s student government (SGA) to be a recognized student organization. Some universities’ student governments have declined to approve TPUSA chapters.

Carter Brown, Sewanee’s assistant director of student involvement, said the chapter will get the same consideration as any student group, and if approved by SGA, must follow the same University policies as all approved organizations. 

Becoming recognized would allow the chapter to apply for student funding. Meanwhile, it is eligible for funding from TPUSA. Rourk said that they could contact the national group if they wanted food or funds to travel to an off-campus chapter such as UT-Knoxville’s.

During their interview with the Purple, Rourk and Jefferson appeared nervous, often looking at each other before answering questions and referring to their group’s charter. Asked about TPUSA’s political stance, Rourk initially declared the group was “non-parteesional.” When gently corrected, she said TPUSA is nonpartisan. 

Jefferson added, “If you really go to the website and look at their values and look at what they want to promote, the biggest thing is just conversation amongst students.”

TPUSA’s website videos include clips from debates Kirk conducts with college students. The captions and thumbnails often use polarizing language. Examples include, but are not limited to, “Charlie Kirk Wrecks ‘Trans-Women Are Women’ Liberal; “Charlie Kirk challenges p–n star with daddy issues on casual sex”; and “student REFUSES to believe Liberal lies.” On his internet show, Kirk has stated opposition to legal immigration and contended that calling the U.S. a nation of immigrants is a lie. In November 2021, the Associated Press also reported that Kirk’s pitch to young Americans relied on stoking outrage and fanning racial divides. And in January, Kirk said he would question a black airline pilot’s work qualifications.

When Kirk appeared at a rally at UT-Knoxville on March 25, TPUSA’s Tennessee field organizer Hannah Whitlow posted photos of the event on Instagram, including images of her handing out white baseball caps emblazoned with the number 47. The same hats, symbolizing support for Trump as 47th president, are offered on the organization’s website as rewards for any donations. 

Kirk has been criticized for his support of Trump and the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), for spreading misinformation about transgender people and for posting viral debates against people with left-leaning political ideologies on TPUSA’s YouTube channel. At Brown University, a December 2019 debate between Kirk and students at a TPUSA-endorsed event left participants feeling interrupted, bombarded and unprofessionally provoked, according to their student newspaper, 

“Even though they say, ‘Oh, you know, what we want to do is have a good faith debate that is an exchange of ideas,’” said Simpson, “what they’re actually trying to do is dunk on people and then get clips to put on their Instagram.”

Asked about such criticisms, Rourk said, “Charlie Kirk and Turning Point are separate entities. Charlie Kirk can have his own opinions. He is a person of himself, you know? And it’s not all encompassing. I think that’s hard for people to understand.” 

Conn said of Kirk, “We may might disagree with what he’s saying. But disagreement is part of the order of the day.”

Amid the Sewanee chapter’s organizing effort, some students expressed interest in forming a left-wing organization. One YikYak post declared a need to “balance out that tpusa bull—.” 

On April 9, environmental studies major  Rowland Fournier (C ‘27) and English major Eleanor Dean (C ‘27) hosted a meeting of the Sewanee Young Democratic Socialists, reviving a group that had recently gone dormant. Their gathering, in a room two doors down from TPUSA’s usual meeting place, drew a boisterous crowd of 27 students.

Dean told the group about a coming Sewanee TPUSA event featuring Conn as speaker.  She urged people to attend, not “to throw tomatoes” but “to take them at their word that they wanted to engage freely and openly.”

Fournier urged people to do research. “It’s kind of pretty clear that they aren’t actually that dedicated to freedom of speech because they have things like the Professor Watchlist, which is actively antagonistic to professors,” he said. “It’s mostly intimidation tactics.”

On April 10, the night of Conn’s talk, TPUSA’s current secretary, English major Baker Elkins (C ‘27), was first to arrive at Walsh-Ellett 204. He found a large red-ink drawing on the classroom’s whiteboard. It depicted a face and the name: “Joe Hill”  which the philosophy and classics major said he didn’t recognize.

Hollway told the Purple they left the drawing of the famous 19th-century labor activist, socialist icon and martyr to make a point. “I haven’t seen much positive space holding for leftist views in the Turning Point discourse, so I thought some art might be a sort of messaging that wasn’t aggressive or rude, but just leftism existing…I really don’t want to be perceived by Turning Point allies as catty. I also don’t think it’s helpful, at this point, to agitate the Sewanee chapter’s members who, at the end of the day, are my fellow college students.”

In his talk, Conn discussed his youthful military service and conversion to Catholicism, his aversion to the COVID-19 vaccine, his dismay at Critical Race Theory and his decision to support the TPUSA chapter. “Sewanee describes itself as fostering an environment of free expression and inquiry, And this won’t happen as long as some are forced to remain silent.” 

He added that everyone must “try to love our neighbor. And our neighbor’s progressive, we gotta love our progressive neighbor. We don’t have a choice there. Progressives aren’t the enemy. They’re fellow citizens with an equal stake in our country’s future. So we have to learn how to disagree with them in a manner which is not disagreeable.”

When Conn took questions, rhetoric major Cedar Bettis (C ‘27) asked about TPUSA and Kirk’s divisiveness. “In the end, we want to be truthful and respectful,” Conn responded, “but in the end we may end up embracing a position which, from a different vantage point, seems cruel.” 

Chapter members asked how to react to opposition. Rourk responded, “Kill them with kindness.”  Conn added, “Be wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove.”

During that meeting, a field representative from another national group offered job opportunities and mentorship. That rep, Spencer Young, said he came at the request of Turning Point’s Tennessee field organizer. He identified himself as the Tennessee and Kentucky field representative for the conservative activist training group, the Leadership Institute. 

Asked later how Sewanee faculty view TPUSA’s campus efforts, Religious Studies Professor Sid Brown told the Purple there is concern, but some might not be bothered about being on the watch list. “They’re teaching what they’ve found to be true, you know, and inviting a variety of arguments,” she said. Even so, she opposes TPUSA because of the nature of its list. 

“[It] makes students into hunters and professors into prey.”

The article misidentified a student speaker at the March 27 organizational meeting of a new Turning Point USA chapter at Sewanee. The statement, captured in a reporter’s audio recording of the meeting, should’ve had stated that one male student attending said he wanted to show “the best of the left and the right.” The online version of the article has been changed to reflect this correction. The Purple regrets the error.