An Arkansas chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the conservative activist group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, is changing its name due to partially-unspecified complaints with the main organization.
"We are no longer focused on our guiding north star -- that is, fighting for conservative policy, principles, and values -- at least, that is how I have always understood it,” University of Arkansas chapter president Dino Fantegrossi said in a public statement. “It feels we have become consumed with metrics, creating viral cultural moments, and generally chasing relevance. We have become reactionary when we need to be proactive.”
The University of Arkansas chapter is instead going to be renamed as Young American Revival. This decision is being made less than a week after Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders urged all Arkansas high schools and colleges to open TPUSA chapters.
Fantegrossi, however, argued that TPUSA "has lost sight of what is truly important,” stating that the University of Arkansas branch has “many grievances” against the group. Although they said they plan on relaying most of these complaints in private, they were public about one of them.
"I will share only one," Fantegrossi said. "We are generally put off by how Charlie Kirk has been used by TPUSA since his assassination. Statements like 'Charlie would have said...' and 'Charlie would have wanted...' have, in many instances, felt disingenuous and manipulative. Charlie Kirk cannot speak for himself anymore, and we do not recognize the way others have attempted to speak for him."
According to a New York Times report from earlier this week, "at least eight Republican governors have partnered with Turning Point, vowing to bring Club America to all of their public high schools.” Yet this effort is undercut somewhat by internal divisions within TPUSA, such as reports in February that many members embrace conspiracy theories regarding Kirk’s assassination in 2025. One former employee, Aubrey Laitsch, alleged that she was fired for doing so.
“I have a lot of concerns and a lot of questions about what took place that day and the events leading up to that day,” Laitsch said at the time. “It is from my own experience that you can’t question the narrative and work at Turning Point. That is how I feel, that is how other people I’ve talked to feel.”
Zeeshan Aleem wrote for MS NOW at the time that this corrosion of trust and embrace of conspiracy theories indicates how far right politics has hobbled itself with its own extremist tendencies.
