Turning Point USA said it has received more than 37,000 requests to open new high-school and college chapters in the days after the fatal shooting of its founder, Charlie Kirk.
Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of the radio program The Charlie Kirk Show, told supporters on X that the nonprofit has been “flooded” with those requests, a surge that would increase the group’s official college presence nearly twentyfold if all were approved. Kolvet said TPUSA currently lists about 900 official college chapters and roughly 1,200 high school chapters, with a presence at 3,500 schools in total.
Kolvet and other TPUSA officials have framed the influx as a direct response to Kirk’s death and to a call from his widow, Erika Kirk, who urged supporters to get involved with the organization. “If you’re in high school or if you’re in college, go find your local Turning Point USA chapter. Join it. Stay involved,” she said in a live-streamed address. “If there isn’t a chapter, you can’t find one, then start one. There is no excuse. Start one.”
Kolvet told Fox News Digital that the organization also has been inundated with offers to work for TPUSA, including hundreds of volunteers and paid employment inquiries. He wrote on X that Charlie Kirk’s vision to expand the group’s Club America high-school brand to every high school in the United States — an ambition he said would encompass about 23,000 schools — could now move forward more quickly than expected.
Kirk, 31, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University as he launched a speaking engagement billed as “The American Comeback Tour.” TPUSA said the tour will continue despite his death.
The organization, which promotes conservative causes and free-speech advocacy on high school and college campuses, has long focused on recruiting and organizing young people. Kirk was a prominent and polarizing figure on campuses who frequently engaged students in debates on subjects including immigration and transgender issues.
Search interest in Turning Point USA spiked sharply in the immediate aftermath of the shooting and surged again after Erika Kirk’s remarks, with Google searches jumping 455 percent, according to the organization’s public statements.
Supporters and allies in conservative circles have described the response as a mobilization of Kirk’s base. TPUSA’s reported numbers do not indicate how many of the requests will convert into active, officially recognized chapters, and the organization did not provide a timeline for processing the influx.
The rapid rise in inquiries follows a period in which Kirk was a key voice in conservative youth politics and a close ally of former President Donald Trump. Turning Point USA has been a significant presence in conservative campus organizing for more than a decade, and the organization’s leaders say the recent surge of interest reflects both a desire among young conservatives to be politically active and a direct reaction to Kirk’s death.
TPUSA officials have said they will work to respond to requests and résumé submissions as they continue the tour and other programming in the coming weeks.