Turning Point Action

Turning Point Action (TPAction) is an American 501(c)(4) organization that exists to embolden the conservative base through grassroots activism and provide voters with the necessary resources to elect true conservative leaders. It was founded in 2019 by Charlie Kirk as the sister organization and political advocacy arm of the 501(c)(3) Turning Point USA.

Leading up to the 2024 election, TPAction launched "Chase the vote" - the largest and most effective ballot chasing operation in the country. It focused on deploying thousands of field organizers in key states to engage with voters through relationship-driven strategies to help elect President Donald J. Trump.

TPAction has hosted many rallies across the country, featuring prominent figures such as President Donald J. Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard and more.

History

In May 2019, it was reported that Kirk was "preparing to unveil" Turning Point Action, a 501(c)(4) entity allowed to campaign against Democrats. While the group claims to be a "completely separate organization" from Turning Point USA, Forbes noted that both were founded by Kirk and use common marketing and branding styles. Kirk has received pay from both Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action.

In July 2019, TPAction acquired leasing rights to web domains and social media platforms of Students for Trump, a youth group founded in 2015 at Campbell University in North Carolina by John Lambert and Ryan Fournier. The Washington Post reported in 2023 that Students for Trump was separating from Turning Point organizations after disputes such as whether to drop "Trump" from the group's name.

In 2024, the Trump campaign partnered with Turning Point Action and other conservative groups to help execute a ground game strategy in key swing states Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin. TPAction's "Chase the Vote" initiate was a new untested campaign tactic directly using outside organizations to lead canvassing efforts to turn out "low propensity right-wing voters" (people who had a high chance to vote for Trump but a low chance to actually cast a ballot). Chase the Vote's strategy was an answer to substantial Republican loses in the 2022 mid-term elections which was believed to be in part due to Democrats having an edge with early voting. Due to this, embracing early voting instead of trying to reboot the voting habits of Republicans in a single voting cycle was a main element of this strategy. Post election data from Arizona suggests that the strategy succeeded

2020 presidential election

In September 2020, The Washington Post reported Turning Point Action had paid young people in Arizona, some of them minors, to post Turning Point content on their social media accounts without disclosing their affiliation with Turning Point, and that Turning Point had given them instructions on making minor alterations to the content to prevent detection that it came from the same source. The posts cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral process, and downplayed the threat from COVID-19. The campaign was likened to a "troll farm", avoiding the content moderation processes of social media platforms. According to an examination by the newspaper and an independent data science specialist, the campaign was highly coordinated and included similar messaging under the instruction of Turning Point to prevent detection. Some of the messages were false and some were partisan. One message posted on Twitter claimed that coronavirus numbers had been inflated intentionally and "it's hard to know what to believe", according to The Washington Post. Another tweet warned to not trust Anthony Fauci. Twitter responded to the newspaper's questions by suspending at least 20 accounts for their involvement in "platform manipulation and spam."

On Facebook, a comment cast doubts on mail-in ballots because of the potential of mail fraud. An Instagram comment claimed that 28 million ballots went missing in the past four elections, implying voter fraud. In actuality, the missing ballots were neither returned as undeliverable nor returned by voters. Also targeted in the messaging were 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, other Democratic politicians, and news organizations on social media. One message claimed that Biden "is being controlled by behind the scenes individuals who want to take America down the dangerous path towards socialism." Facebook removed a number of accounts during its ongoing investigation. Austin Smith, a field director for Turning Point, told The Washington Post: "This is sincere political activism conducted by real people who passionately hold the beliefs they describe online, not an anonymous troll farm in Russia." Jake Hoffman, CEO of a Phoenix-based digital marketing firm that joined Turning Point for the project, said that "dozens of young people have been excited to share their beliefs on social media" and were "using their own personal profiles and sharing their content that reflects their values and beliefs."

After the 2020 election, Kirk disputed the results and denied that Trump had lost. On January 4, 2021, Kirk announced in a tweet that Turning Point Action would be sending more than 80 buses to a January 6, 2021, Trump "Stop the Steal" rally near the White House in Washington, D.C, to protest the outcome of the election. They sent seven buses with approximately 350 participants. Turning Point Action also funneled money to several "Stop the Steal" rally speakers, including Kimberly Guilfoyle, but did not organize or take part in the march to the Capitol that erupted in violence. The rally, which was attended by several thousand Trump supporters, ended in a riot and the attack at the U.S. Capitol, where Biden's win was about to be certified. Kirk later deleted the tweet and said on his podcast that it was "bad judgment" and "not wise" to enter the Capitol but not necessarily insurrectionist. A Turning Point Action spokesman later said the group condemns political violence.

COVID-19 vaccination in the United States

In 2021, Kirk compared Biden's vaccination efforts to an "Apartheid-style open air hostage situation". Text messages sent by Turning Point Action using Twilio automatically enrolled donors under a recurring monthly plan. Kirk's spokesperson said they are not anti-vaxx, reiterating that "the vaccine makes logical sense for millions of Americans" but they should "have the freedom to chose", and Kirk was advocating against vaccine mandates and passports for healthy young people. The same spokesperson said the text messages from Turning Point Action were not approved by Kirk and that the automatic contribution function was added by a vendor.

2024 presidential election

TPAction hosted a conference in July 2023 called "ACTCON", it was hosted in West Palm Beach and drew roughly around 6,000 attendees. It had several guest speakers including the event headliner Donald Trump and keynote speaker Tucker Carlson. According to the New York Times, the two day event drew roughly a third of the Republican presidential field as speakers.

On July 26, 2024, while addressing the crowd during Turning Point Action’s Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach, Donald Trump told his supporters: "Christians, get out and vote, just this time! You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians."

For the 2024 presidential campaign Turning Point Action launched a "chase the vote" program that saw 1,000 people hired for voter outreach with a focus on younger voters as well as low-propensity Republican voters in all key battleground states, including Arizona, Wisconsin, partially in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Voter turnout operations are typically run by national and state Republican parties or candidates' own campaigns, but in 2024 a Federal Election Commission decision allowed campaigns to coordinate canvassing with outside groups. For Turning Point, that has meant hiring staffers, developing a canvassing app and staffing tables at both on- and off-campus events. In Wisconsin, TPAction combined their canvassing efforts with those of America PAC.

Before the 2024 election TPAction brought Moms for America into their "Chase the Vote" alliance. The partnerships goal was to have Moms for America help promote events as well as a new app focused on get out the vote tactics (GOTV). The app provided data with insights to key targets to "chase" during the election cycle.

During the 2024 presidential election, Brian Hughes, a senior advisor on the Trump campaign called TPAction's field program a "force multiplier" which allowed for more efficient deployment of campaign and RNC assets in key battleground states.

"You're being brainwashed" tour

Prior to the 2024 presidential election Charlie Kirk visited around 25 college campuses labeled as the "You're being brainwashed" tour, trying to stir up more Gen-Z voter turnout by where he would engage/debate with students on many different relevant topics. According to Turning Point Action the tour produced around two billion viral views on social media. The tour has been praised as having a "critical role" in helping Donald Trump get elected.

Resignation of Austin Smith

In April 2024, Arizona state representative Austin Smith who was an "election integrity warrior" and the TPAction National Field Administrative Director resigned his TPAction position and quit his state reelection race after he was accused of forging voter signatures on documents he filed for his reelection run.

Tyler Bowyer indicted in Arizona fake electors plot

On April 24, 2024, TPAction COO Tyler Bowyer was indicted on 9 charges in connection with the 2020 Arizona fake electors plot. On May 21, 2024, Bowyer and 10 of his 17 co-defendants pled not guilty after being arraigned in Maricopa County Superior Court. Bowyer was among five people who made their not guilty plea virtually rather than in-person.

References

External links

Official website
"Turning Point Action". Internal Revenue Service filings. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.