Turning Point USA Chapter Coming to Davidson

Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a nationwide conservative student organization founded by conservative media icon Charlie Kirk with chapters on over 900 college campuses, is coming to Davidson. With Oliver Genovese’ 28 at the helm, the chapter has received approval from Student Activities and can solidify its place on campus once it finalizes a faculty advisor. 

TPUSA’s national staff has embraced the effort, with a field representative devoted to expanding the organization’s regional presence working with Genovese to help establish the chapter.

“[TPUSA] actually reached out to me initially because they’re trying to expand,” Genovese said.

The nascent chapter has already begun preparations for the year of programming. Beyond recruiting new members, Genovese is planning a kickoff event and looking into potential speakers to bring to campus. Per the TPUSA chapter handbook, the organization will also need to host at least one activism event—with options ranging from their iconic tabling events engaging peers in political discussion to voter registration drives to a “Dunking on Socialism” dunk tank—each semester. 

For Genovese, the establishment of a TPUSA chapter at Davidson marks a culmination of years of engagement with the organization’s content. “I’ve always been a Charlie Kirk fan and a TPUSA fan,” he said. “I’ve been watching him for three years now and agree with not all, but most of his stances and takes.”

“I really like how TPUSA focuses on engaging young college students. It was crucial for conservatives during the last election because before that there was no real presence on college campuses for conservatives.”

The push towards a Davidson TPUSA chapter coincides with a tragic and tumultuous moment for the national organization. On Sep. 10, while on stage at Utah Valley University as part of his American Comeback Tour, Kirk was shot and killed, creating national shock and discourse. Known for his travels to college campuses to engage with students on hot-button political issues, Kirk was the face of TPUSA. His death leaves the movement at a crossroads.

In the interim, Kirk’s death forced a pause in Genovese’s plans. “We can’t do anything for approximately the next two weeks because TPUSA is shut down,” Genovese said. Nonetheless, in the longer term, TPUSA appears poised to recover and continue its mission. During a TPUSA livestream constituting her first remarks after her husband’s death, Kirk’s widow Erika said, “the movement my husband built will not die. It will become stronger. Bolder. Louder and greater than ever.”

Although Genovese had expressed interest in launching a chapter and taken necessary steps to initiate that process well before Kirk was killed, the assassination catalyzed interest in developing TPUSA branches around the country. According to Andrew Kolvet, the executive producer of the Charlie Kirk Show, in an interview with Fox News, TPUSA received over 37,000 inquiries last weekend from people interested in taking steps to start their own chapters. 

Kirk’s killing warranted a statement Wednesday evening from President Doug Hicks ‘90. “I have already heard from concerned students, faculty, and staff about how troubled they are by an act of violence on a campus that silenced a political voice. We must remain committed, to the greatest extent possible, to open and diverse expression,” Hicks wrote in an email to the Davidson campus community. 

In a later statement to The Davidsonian explaining why he sent that email, Hicks added “A shooting on a college campus of someone expressing their political views is heinous and reprehensible. It contradicts and is a threat to the freedom of expression that we have and seek to strengthen at Davidson.”

Davidson administrators withheld from endorsing or condemning TPUSA but reiterated their commitment to free expression. “We don’t comment on specific student organizations but Davidson College is founded on open, free and diverse expression,” Hicks told The Davidsonian. “Mutual respect is essential to living out those ideals and fostering a community where we learn from each other. We welcome new viewpoints on campus.”

Unlike the College’s partisan organizations (College Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians) which are overseen by the Center for Political Engagement and receive funding from through Student Activities Office, a TPUSA chapter would not rely on College funds.

This places it in a more similar situation to other campus groups like Young Americans for Freedom, another conservative organization that generally finances its events with funds from their national affiliates.

“I’m generally skeptical of large outside organizations funding new groups on campus,” Davidson College Libertarians President Gabriel Russ-Nachamie ‘26 said (Russ-Nachamie is also Perspectives Editor at The Davidsonian). 

Student reactions to TPUSA’s imminent arrival to campus have been mixed.

“I think [TPUSA] is great and I’m all for it,” Alexa Cohen ‘26, the president of the Davidson Republicans, said. “The more conservative organizations we can have on campus, the better.”

“Davidson has very few conservative or right-leaning students and by now adding a third or fourth right-leaning or center-right group on campus, you’re just further splitting up the members. We already have established clubs here on campus that have been here for decades and have contributed to the human capital on campus,” Russ-Nachamie said. “TPUSA coming is going to split up conservative students into tinier and tinier groups when we have these established clubs already on campus that welcome everyone to contribute to right-leaning ideas.”

The Davidsonian also reached out to other students and groups that hesitated to go on the record expressing qualms with the organization’s arrival, fearing backlash after Kirk’s death. Spurred by rhetoric after Kirk’s assassination, US Attorney General Pam Bondi indicated Tuesday on The Katie Miller Show that she would “absolutely target [and] go after” anyone “targeting anyone with hate speech.”