Jenny Beth traveled to Arizona to sit down with Turning Point USA Founder and President Charlie Kirk. Charlie talks about how TPUSA is expanding from their origins as a student movement to now appealing to adults and churches. Charlie gives some insight on something that changed his life, and he tells what he thinks we need to do to win in 2024.
Jenny Beth traveled to Arizona to sit down with Turning Point USA Founder and President Charlie Kirk. Charlie talks about how TPUSA is expanding from their origins as a student movement to now appealing to adults and churches. Charlie gives some insight on something that changed his life, and he tells what he thinks we need to do to win in 2024.
Twitter: @charliekirk11 @TPUSA @jennybethm @tppatriots
Charlie Kirk (00:00):
I really think the Republican Party broadly has a huge opportunity in front of us. We're a people party now, and you have to listen to the grassroots. You have to listen to their concerns.
Narrator (00:10):
Keeping our republic is on the line and it requires Patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. She's an author, a filmmaker, and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she's most proud of is Mom To Her Boy, girl Twins. She has been at the forefront fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade. Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:42):
No one has been more effective at reaching younger generations of Americans with a conservative message than my next guest. Charlie Kirk is the founder and president of Turning Point U. Ss a and chairman of Students for Trump. At T P U S A, he has built a massive network of high school and college age activists, and he's not stopping there when it comes to the future of America. He's not leaving it in the hands of fate. He's trusting in God rolling up his sleeves and putting in the work to keep our republic. I'm proud to be partnering with Charlie in an upcoming project to help secure and win elections in 2024, and I hope this episode inspires you to get involved as well. Charlie, thanks so much for letting me take over your studio
Charlie Kirk (01:29):
At your location. Yeah, only for you, Jenny Beth. Oh,
Jenny Beth Martin (01:31):
You're very
Charlie Kirk (01:31):
Kind. You do wonderful work. We're honored to have you here.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:34):
So how long have you had this place?
Charlie Kirk (01:36):
Oh, well, this particular building, I'm trying to think five or six years now. So it was part of our migration to Arizona. The Lord knew what he was doing. I live here now, so there's no escaping it. I love this state. It's amazing. It's the best of America. It, it's also the highest stake state in the country. All the bad guys are pouring lots of money into the state. It's changed dramatically politically, unfortunately. I feel called to do my part to try to change it. We might be successful, we might not. We want to term this more like Florida and less like Colorado, Arizona used to be a real Ruby Red State isn't anymore, but we're in the right place.
Jenny Beth Martin (02:12):
That's good. That's very good. You've got just an amazing operation going on. Thank you. So one of the things that I've noticed that you and Turning Point, turning Point action are doing, you have focused a lot on high school kids and college kids and now you're expanding into churches and with Turning Point action even with adults. Can you talk a little bit about some of the changes and how you're reaching out also to adults and not just
Charlie Kirk (02:36):
Kids? Yeah. I mean, as I get older, the organization kind of grows with us. The church thing's really fun. I never thought I'd be getting into the church world. I've been a Christian since I was in fifth grade, get my life to the Lord. I kind of stayed away from ever mixing politics and religion how I was raised. And I said, okay, let the evangelical groups do their thing. There's a lot of these DC groups that say they do a lot of stuff with churches. I assume they were doing good work. And then all of a sudden the lockdowns came and 99% of pastors coward in fear when they took Eastern Pentecost away and they said, oh, Romans 13, they got to shut down. Listen to the government. I was like, whoa. I thought you guys were bold and courageous. You guys are cowards. And there were some really good pastors that stood up.
(03:15):
I said, we got to get to know them. Traveled the country, spoke at some of their churches in the calendar year of 2020. And then the second reason we got involved in the church space is all of a sudden these churches preaching to empty auditoriums are telling the America's a systemically racist country and white privilege. What is going on here? And so we felt called from our role, from a cultural civic engagement role to try to strengthen and wake up the church to Excommunicate woke from the church. And so we're doing our part. We have over 2000 member pastor and churches now, huge Pastor summits. The Lord has been super blessed. So, and then Turning Point action, watch out. We're taking over state parties. We're holding the R N C accountable. We're getting rid of the Vichy French Republicans. We're not here to try to make a long political career. We're here because I'm sick of losing the country. We want to put the grassroots back in charge of the Republican Party.
Jenny Beth Martin (04:04):
When you do as much work as you do all week long, and I know I have those long, long weeks where you've got 12 and 18 hour days,
Charlie Kirk (04:13):
You've been doing it forever longer
Jenny Beth Martin (04:14):
Than I have. You don't want to see the people who are just taking it all for granted and throwing it away. And you want to make sure that you're helping the people who care about the country be equipped to take care of the country. Yeah,
Charlie Kirk (04:27):
Absolutely. And I really think the Republican Party broadly has a huge opportunity in front of us. This primary is largely a distraction, but we're already seeing some really positive themes that the people in charge of the Republican Party are not the donors of Aspen or the Hamptons. There's some really good donors in Aspen and Hamptons. We have some of them. There's also a lot of not so good donors in Aspen and the Hamptons. We're a people party now, and you have to listen to the grassroots. You have to listen to their concerns. You got to go to the podcast that asks you the tough questions. You just can't keep on going to the same sort of, let's support Ukraine podcast hour or whatever stupid thing that they do on cable television. Now, the party has profoundly gone through a metamorphosis, and Donald Trump is to credit for that without a doubt.
(05:08):
And Jenny Beth, you deserve credit. You were the grassroots movement that really led to Trump. And Trump, I think spoke at some of your events like 10 years ago, if I'm not mistaken, right? Yeah. He saw the power of the Tea Party movement before anybody else, grassroots great energy. And it is like Tea Party maga. And now we have this amazing coalition of all those elements together. So that's really exciting. And at Turning Point Action, we know we're really focused on precinct development. And again, people ask me, what does the strategy look like? Well, what does the success look like? I want the Republican Party to be as conservative as their voters. That shouldn't have to be a huge ask, right? Yeah, it shouldn't be. So you take South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas. I wouldn't say that most of their senators are Democrats, but they're certainly not nearly voting as conservative as their voters are. So let's just fix that. That's an easy ask, and that's our current mission.
Jenny Beth Martin (05:56):
It isn't that hard to do, and it's not that hard to ask for. It's hard to do.
Charlie Kirk (06:02):
It is a challenge. It's hard to do. Yes. You know how it's a challenge. Yeah,
Jenny Beth Martin (06:04):
It's a complete challenge. One of the things I heard recently as you were talking about the importance of the grassroots being involved, I think that the R N c, putting a stipulation on the debates that the candidates have to have a certain number of donors actually is a good thing. And I've heard some of the candidates complaining about it, and it makes me think, well, yeah, then you're probably not listening to the grassroots.
Charlie Kirk (06:28):
It's a great intention, poorly executed. You just give away gift cards, I guess, to get on the stage. Yeah, that's true. And then I don't know if they're actually vetting it, but I do appreciate the effort, the intention of the R N C. No one takes the R n C seriously. So they're all just kind of gaming. I think half of 'em are lying, but I do want to credit the R N C, at least they tried to say, Hey, we want to be a grassroots party. You have to have at least 40,000 people that have given you money
Jenny Beth Martin (06:49):
And the candidates who are complaining about it, showing
Charlie Kirk (06:53):
You everything you need to know.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:54):
They're showing a lot of their true colors right now. That's right. I like
Charlie Kirk (06:57):
That. It also shows, I mean, they can't draw crowd. They can't draw support. So look, the Republican party is no longer the party, the Chamber of Commerce no longer the party, a billionaire oligarchs. We've kicked those people out of our party a long time ago thanks to Donald Trump. And that means we are going to be in a funding deficit for a considerable time, but we can't be in an activist or an energy deficit. And so we can't look, they're going to outspend us everywhere. They're going to outspend us on the ballot referendums, they're going to outspend us in ads, but are they going to outwork us? And that's where we come in, both Tea Party Patriots and Turning Point Action.
Jenny Beth Martin (07:29):
And Tyler and I have been working on a lot of things. Some of them will be rolling out more in 2024 to make sure that we are equipped and that the activists are equipped.
Charlie Kirk (07:39):
I'm excited about
Jenny Beth Martin (07:40):
It. It's going to be good. I'm really excited about it as well. One of the things I want to shift gears just a little bit that I've heard you mention and I think that people would be interested in hearing more about is that you were doing basically a digital detox.
Charlie Kirk (07:53):
Yeah. Sabbath. Yeah. It was funny a couple years ago, I mean, I've been going hard for as like you, 11 years, and I was just getting super worn down. I mean, I didn't really stop after the 2020 election. I just kept going. And then we had the awful events of January 6th. It was just a nonstop. So the summer of 2021 was a challenge. It was just like, my goodness, when do you get rest? And a pastor friend of mine was like, well, you should take the Sabbath. And at the same time, I love Dennis Prager. I listened to a lot his podcasts, and I would always be envious. I'm like, wow, the Jewish people, religious Jews are so lucky they get to take a day off. It's like, why don't I do that? I'm a free sovereign being. I could do it. And it says, in the 10 Commandments, for six days you shall work and for one day you shall rest.
(08:34):
I was like, okay. I got the six days down. So I got the first part of the commandment, but I'm definitely not resting. And so in Hebrew, the word Sabbath, Shabbat means to stop, to cease. And you do it first and foremost in observance that God created the heavens in the earth. It is the longest standing religious celebration in human history. It's building a cathedral in time. And so I started doing it. The first couple weeks were hard, and the first of months were difficult because people thought they could reach me. But then after about six months, nine months, honestly, it's like most people know I honor the Shabbat and I go from Friday night to Sunday morning. Some people say, Hey, Sunday's the Shabbat. That's fine. You guys do whatever you want. I'm not even saying you're honor bound, you're biblically bound to do it.
(09:11):
But I know that I rest better on Saturday than Sunday. Sunday is the day before work. I'm already thinking about it. So it works for me. And it's honestly profoundly changed my life. 36 hours, no phone. My team loves it because I kind of lay off in them for a little bit imagine. But it's honestly, I think it preserves us, hopefully the organization and me to come and fight for the next 40 years. Because we're in this for the long haul. We're not going to save America overnight. We're going to have victories hopefully pretty quick. But the long-term accomplishment is going to be multi-generational. And I think the Lord gives us that commandment. He loves us, and it allows you to say, Hey, for six days I'm going to go as hard as I can. And then I'm just going to kind of rest stop cease from activity. So as we're recording having this conversation tonight, I was just planning our Shabbat dinner tonight and family turn the phones off and I'll be back on the grid Sunday morning.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:04):
It's great and you've got a very small child and hopefully you'll have more kids.
Charlie Kirk (10:09):
That is the
Jenny Beth Martin (10:10):
Prayer. It's a good way to spend that time and to know you're going to have that time with them.
Charlie Kirk (10:15):
And so there's some debates in Christian circles. Are you commanded to honor the Sabbath the way the Jews are? I actually am not that interested in those debates. I'm saying you're missing out if you're not. So in no ways is it against the Bible to honor the Sabbath. But I think you're missing out. I think you're missing out on one of the great delights of life and studying the 10 Commandments, which I think is one of the great moral accomplishments honestly, in the history of our species. I think it's the commandment that allows the other commandments to make possible. So if you honor the Sabbath, you're more likely to have a beautiful family. You're more likely to honor your parents. You're more likely to not covet. You're more likely to honor your God and have no other God's poor him. So I think it's the gateway to the other nine commandments
Jenny Beth Martin (10:55):
That's really, really good. And I think that a lot of younger people, like in your audience, need to understand that taking a little bit of time off from their phone,
Charlie Kirk (11:04):
It's amazing. Yeah,
Jenny Beth Martin (11:06):
They need
Charlie Kirk (11:06):
That time away. Your identity is not through your device. And Recenters, you could journal. Some people say, well, Charlie, will you ride in a car? Yeah, I'll ride in a car. I won't work though. That's the difference. I will not do work what the commandment says. No work. And so yeah, I might watch a college football game if it's on something that I enjoy of that decompresses me. But honestly, the best Sabbath are the ones where I have no devices and I'm just reading and I'm just with family or I'm with friends.
Jenny Beth Martin (11:32):
My son, in the summer of 2021, he is an Eagle Scout and he went up to Northern Tier and worked at Northern Tier. And so that is on the boundary waters in Minnesota. And he took troops out canoeing.
Charlie Kirk (11:45):
It's supposed to be the quietest place in America.
Jenny Beth Martin (11:47):
It was very quiet and he couldn't use the cell phone. And he came back and he went through a metamorphosis and not having that phone. He would have it when he got back on the weekends, but then he'd be out for seven to 10 days with no phone, and it changed him. I think that more kids really need to get away from their devices. Adults do too. I'm sure I
Charlie Kirk (12:09):
Do as well. The differences with kids is that no one should have a phone younger than 18 years old, but that's a separate issue. I've lost that debate. I've tried for a long, I grew up in a different era 10 years ago, but it neurologically changes your brain. And that's the difference is that if a 50 year old uses their phone, they don't have the same sort of dopaminergic attraction or attachment to it that a 12 year old will because they're developing long lasting pathways that then addict them to that device for the rest of their life.
Jenny Beth Martin (12:42):
Yeah, it's really scary. So I'm glad you're doing that and hope that
Charlie Kirk (12:46):
Yeah, and if you're not, you're missing out. I'm not trying to guilt you into it, it's just your life will be shallow if you don't.
Jenny Beth Martin (12:52):
Yeah. Okay. Now, looking ahead in the next year and a half, as we're looking at November 20, 24 and beyond, things can look really bleak the day we're recording this. Things do look pretty bleak, but you have hope for the future. Why do you have hope?
Charlie Kirk (13:10):
Yeah, I have hope in the ultimate future. So as far as the election goes, 2024, anything can happen. If it's Trump v Biden, it's going to be difficult. The Republican establishment is not playing to win. The Democrats are if other people decide to run, if there's no labels or Cornell West, it could get interesting in your home state of Georgia, Cornell West could maybe pull a couple hundred thousand black voters, and that could be an interesting dynamic to it. But look, I'm driven by my faith and I'm driven by a strong belief that God meets you halfway. And so we must act with obedience, and maybe God will act in a miraculous way. Look, I'm not a hopium guy where I don't go on my podcast, my show your show and be like, you know what? We're going to win the election. I don't believe that.
(13:53):
I think we could, but we have to work for a miracle. And so that means we have to work the hardest we possibly can. This is the problem with the mindset of the conservative movement. And I hear this, Charlie, what's the point? The odds are stacked against us, or if we lose, I'm giving up, I'm surrendering. I'm moving to Auckland New Zealand, I'm moving to Zurich, Switzerland. And I said, well, you have your why. All wrong. You do it out of obedience, you do it out of duty. You do it out of gratitude for what happened before. And if we win, then it will be the greatest celebration. But guess what? Maybe God doesn't want you to take credit for it. Maybe all of this, he wants you to say, you know what? I did a little bit, but my goodness. And honestly, there's so many things that could still happen.
(14:31):
We have no idea what this race is going to look like. Right? And yeah, it looks bad. And also conservatives not playing to win. We're going to try to do our part. You're going to try to do your part. We're going to try to do our element of ballot chasing and precinct organizing. It really is a three state race. It's Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin. That's it. I believe Donald J. Trump will win Florida. He'll win North Carolina, he'll win Ohio. Win. North Carolina is the one that's going to require a little bit of work, but it's structurally a pretty good state. But Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin are tough. And you win those three states. He's the president of the United States. So it's a three state race, really. Nate County race comes down to mainly Maricopa, a little bit of Pinal, a little bit of Pima, and then Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, and then Dane, Kenosha, Milwaukee. That's basically the whole civilization. So if we start talking like that, now, let's put our working boots on and mobilize the conservative Republican base to try to make an impact. So what might seem daunting, like, oh wow, hundreds of millions of 200 million votes and billions of dollars. Well, guys, this is seven counties
Jenny Beth Martin (15:26):
In these three, let's work three seats. It was far less than a hundred thousand votes
Charlie Kirk (15:29):
Difference. It was 44,000. Yeah. Here in Arizona, it was 50. In Arizona, it was 10,000. Georgia was like 8,000, 22,000 in Wisconsin. And that's with all their crap, right? That's with all the fraud, all the ballot mules, all the suppression and all that. So I think that we're right on the margins. I think that if the election were held today, and if it was held ethically, Trump would win. It's not going to be held ethically. So it's a coin tossed. It's a coin tossed. So even with that, I think it's like five, 6,000 votes on the margins. So my goodness guys, stop complaining. We have a chance to make history, and maybe God's going to act in a miraculous way. Maybe blacks will come in our way in a three four point way because of the trans issue. Maybe working class Hispanics will come our way. Maybe we'll have a parent's realignment in Kenosha or Waukesha, or I have no idea. Or maybe these third party candidates will draw hundreds of thousands of younger voters at uw, Madison, Marquette, and in Athens, Georgia. I don't know. You don't know. Nobody knows. No one knows. But I do know that if we don't work, we lose. And that's the message I'm bringing to the grassroots.
Jenny Beth Martin (16:24):
And I think that's a really important message. And it's not just that the activists don't know, but the talking heads on TV want us to think that it's all settled already anyway. We don't know. So we have to give it our
Charlie Kirk (16:36):
All. No, we have to act out of obedience, and we have to get our why. Correct. And I am of the mindset that if we are not successful, I'm going to get up and go back to work. And if that's not your mindset, then you're what's called. And those founders had a great term for it. You're a sunshine patriot. You're not built for this, and that's fine. Go do whatever you got to do. Right? Go run small business or sell insurance or whatever. We're in this for the rest of our life. That's right. But we need you. Right? We need you to knock on doors on a precinct, committeeman, donate the money. You can, whatever it takes. Poll, watch, pull, watch. Yeah. And everyone has their calling, right? Right. And we're trying to fill the void.
Jenny Beth Martin (17:12):
Well, I am excited about what you're doing. Thank you. And I am excited about the partnership that we have.
Charlie Kirk (17:18):
Tyler Tyler's been cooking up some great stuff.
Jenny Beth Martin (17:20):
Yeah, Tyler is really good, and I appreciate the time that you spent with us today.
Charlie Kirk (17:25):
Thank you so much. Thank Jenny Beth. Love Tea Party Patriots, and we're here to help.
Jenny Beth Martin (17:29):
Thank you very much, Charlie
Charlie Kirk (17:30):
Kirk. God bless you.
Narrator (17:32):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Han, and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.
Jenny Beth Martin (17:52):
If you like this episode, let me know by hitting the light button or leaving a comment or a five star review. And if you want to be the first to know, every time we drop a new episode, be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications on whichever platform you're listening to. If you do these simple things, it will help the podcast grow, and I appreciate it very much.