Turning Point USA's Erika Kirk during U.S. President Donald Trump's State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 24, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
During a late 2010s conversation on WURD-FM (a Black talk radio station in Philadelphia), one of the guests commented that if you think Millennials are liberal or progressive, wait until Generation Z becomes more involved in politics. But in the 2024 presidential race, Donald Trump made gains with Gen-Z voters — much to the frustration of Democrats. And Turning Point USA, the MAGA youth group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, is still trying to convert Gen-Z to far-right MAGA politics and evangelical Christian nationalism.
Turning Point, now led by Charlie Kirk's widow Erika Kirk, is heavily focused on college campuses. But in a video posted by the New York Times on March 15, reporters Michael Anthony Adams, Mark Boyer and Luke Piotrowski examine Turning Point's high school outreach with Club America.
According to the report, "At least eight Republican governors have partnered with Turning Point, vowing to bring Club America to all of their public high schools. But here in New York, where Democrats govern and a statewide embrace of TPUSA's conservative Christian ideology is unlikely, students like Jacob Kennedy are still trying to launch Club America, even if that means an uphill battle."
Kennedy, an evangelical Christian fundamentalist, told the Times, "I have grown up in a Christian home, which follows mostly the values of conservative beliefs. It's my first year at a public school. I did not feel accepted to share my conservative beliefs and my religion."
But some of the New York State parents in the video want to make sure that liberal and progressive politics also have their outlets in high schools.
One of them stressed, "If there’s going to be a Club America, by God, there needs to be a Club Progressive."
Another had much more biting things to say about Turning Point and Club America's far-right agenda, commenting, "I would just like to say, 'Welcome to Germany, 1939.'"