I’ve never needed Turning Point USA. I grew up in a red part of New York. I attended a college with many like-minded individuals. I never needed a club or a group of students unified for the conservative movement.
Because of this, this past weekend was my first Turning Point USA AmericaFest. I was told by past attendees and organizers alike that it would be unlike any conference I’d attended. And it was.
There were people from all walks of life and ages. There were some kids, some high schoolers and college students, as well as parents and grandparents. Everyone seemed to have the same mission, to honor Charlie Kirk.
A majority of my time at AmFest was spent at the Daily Caller booth on what was dubbed “media row.” There, many media outlets such as The Blaze, Breitbart, The Daily Wire, Fox Nation and more set up their booths or stages to interview guests and attendees at AmFest.
Between my colleague Ashley Brasfield and I, we interviewed COO of Turning Point Action Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point Frontlines White House correspondent Monica Paige Baldwin, Congressman Byron Donalds, former RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and popular podcast host Alex Clark. And that is just naming a few of our interviews!
All of our guests talked about the meaning of being at the first AmFest since Charlie Kirk’s murder. Tyler and Monica shared with me that this is the largest ever AmFest, with 31,000 attendees. More than half of those attendees were women.
For Tyler, the size of the conference was almost beyond his biggest dreams. He had joined TPUSA at the very beginning of the operation. He told the Caller just how much this would all mean to Charlie.