The overall feeling of Turning Point USA's annual AmericaFest conference in Phoenix last year was triumphant. Republicans had just won a "red wave" in 2024 and reelected President Donald Trump with the support of every single swing state.
But this year, the feeling had changed. Three months after co-founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University, the overall feeling was determination. To carry out his legacy.
The event drew a record 30,000 attendees this year, who flocked to the Phoenix Convention Center to hear from conservative speakers. The turnout was roughly 50% higher than last year.
The conference included breakout sessions like "Mass Migration is Causing all the Problems, Actually" and "In the Belly of the Beast: Confronting and Exposing Antifa," and a slate of big-name guests, including Vice President JD Vance and the organization's new leader, Kirk's widow Erika.
"We are going to honor him not just with words, but with action," Kirk said of her late husband.
On opening night, Erika Kirk announced that thousands of new churches, colleges and high schools have started Turning Point chapters since her husband's death.
"We are starting 50 chapters per day at Turning Point USA. It's amazing," she told the crowd.
About a third of the AmericaFestt attendees were students.
Kirk said Turning Point will continue holding "Prove Me Wrong" events on school campuses and announced the "pick up the mic" debate tour on campuses for next year.
The organization will also launch a "Make Heaven Crowded" tour in 2026.
30,000 Charlie Kirks
Attendees said over and over again that Kirk's assassination pushed them to become more engaged than ever before.
"They may not have Charlie, but they're got all of us and everyone who wants to do this for Charlie. And I think that will benefit Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action [Turning Point's political arm] with having thousands of people that want to do what Charlie was doing," said 16-year-old Austin Shelly, who came all the way from Rochester, New York.
Texas 18-year-old Ellie Brown is the vice president of her high school's Turning Point chapter. She said that in a sense, Kirk's death made the organization stronger. And she's not alone in that sentiment.
Fellow young attendees Nathan Howell, Sam Otwell and Canon Lien also said Turning Point can succeed without Kirk.
"I mean, I would say, honestly, it's better. After his death, I think that so many more people were drawn in. Obviously, no one will live up to his legacy or be who he was, but his death brought in so many more people, and so I feel like that was his ultimate goal," Brown said.
Brown is also one of many attendees who is now inspired by Erika Kirk.
Fifty-four percent women
This year, the majority of AmericaFest attendees were women — 54% to be exact.
There have always been plenty of women involved with Turning Point, but Charlie Kirk was especially well known for appealing to young men.
Some attendees, like Brown, say they think Erika Kirk is resonating with young women.
"A lot of what Charlie Kirk stood for was like, 'Oh, young men should be leaders' and all these things — which I totally agree with - but I feel like because there's a woman leading, it's also drawing in other people, and I feel like it's drawing in more men too, seeing, 'Oh, I can find a wife who's politically involved,'" Brown said.
Attendee Stefanie Barela made the trip from California. She said Kirk's death served as a wakeup call for conservatives everywhere, and cited something else she heard from a Turning Point leader: that Charlie Kirk came to wake up the young men and Erika Kirk came to wake up the young women.
"I think a lot of people did not know about Charlie Kirk until he was assassinated, so it's just — it's growing like wildfire now, which is fantastic. So, God's plan is always greater," Barela said.
Erika Kirk spoke at multiple AmericaFest events, including a "Prove Me Wrong" table. A hallmark of Kirk's platform, he would appear on college campuses under a tent inviting debaters to approach him on any topic.
He was hosting a Prove Me Wrong event when he was killed.
Erika Kirk's Prove Me Wrong event was distinctly different. She sat on a dais on a panel with two other Turning Point leaders.
Before the event started, the crowd was instructed to ask friendly "non-political" questions.
Of course, there weren't many liberals to spark true debates at AmericaFest. The questions for Kirk came almost exclusively from young women asking how to be more like her.
They asked about her skincare routine, how to have a marriage like hers, how to manage conservative activism and motherhood, and what the best part of being a mom is.
Kirk connected all of her answers back to her faith in God — except for the skincare question and whether she prefers pancakes or waffles (it's pancakes).
Her responses went over well with the crowd.
"I really always admired Charlie, but I think that having a beautiful feminine voice brings out more women to hop into politics," Melody Brittingham said.
She, like many attendees, was attending AmericaFest for the first time. She said Erika's Prove Me Wrong table was her favorite event.
"I just think she's a very feminine, beautiful woman, and she's so in love with God. She has so much wisdom," Brittingham said.
As for whether the organization has changed in the last three months, she said it's made participants more passionate.
"I feel like a new fire has been lit where everybody was involved before but now they feel and sense the need to get that fire lit even higher. … I think it's going to be bigger than we could ever imagine," Brittingham said.
Infighting
This year's event was somewhat inflamed by conservative figures in different factions making it clear that they don't like one another.
One of the first speakers on Thursday was commentator Ben Shapiro. He quickly and sharply criticized Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and far-right streamer Nick Fuentes (whom Carlson recently interviewed).
Central to that argument is the topic of Israel. While many attendees believe that Charlie Kirk was pulling back on his support for Israel in the last weeks of his life, AmericaFest was a staunchly pro-Israel event.
Antisemitism, in particular, is something that Shapiro spoke on the need to condemn, especially those who associate with Fuentes.
"Friendship with public figures who say or do evil things is not an excuse for silence," Shapiro said.
Fuentes has said Jewish people have "no place in Western civilization," among other things, and expressed skepticism about the Holocaust.
Kelly and Carlson clapped back at Shapiro. Although Fuentes didn't attend the event, he continued to be a topic of conversation.
Charlie Kirk inspires the left?
The power of Turning Point is not lost on liberals.
Across the street from AmericaFest, a left-wing organization called National Ground Game held a counterprotest at Majerle's Sports Grill.
Very much in the style of Turning Point, National Ground Game is in the midst of a touring event called the Unf-ck America Tour.
"I would say when we started we were going to be the counter to Turning Point," National Ground Game leader Zee Cohen-Sanchez said of her group.
National Ground Game is a burgeoning organization, not yet near the scale of Turning Point. Cohen-Sanchez founded it in February and started the Unf-ck America tour in April.
Cohen-Sanchez said that although she disagreed with Charlie Kirk on everything, she acknowledges his effectiveness and it shows in the way her group is trying to use a similar model.
"I think he [Kirk] was the best organizer of our generation. It takes a lot not just to be able to see the connection between the media and the ground game, which is obviously super important, he was the only person doing that. But to be doing that back in 2013 with the launch of social media, right, that is a very visionary thing to do," Cohen-Sanchez said. "That is something that the Democratic Party in 2025 we are just now realizing that we should be doing. That's a problem."
Cohen-Sanchez said that although individual Democratic candidates are supportive of what her group is doing, the Democratic Party establishment has been unresponsive.
"Charlie was a big reason why we lost the youth vote in the last election, and it wasn't just the youth vote. I mean we lost a lot of demographics that we should win, and I just don't think it's acceptable for us to say that we can't do that. We have more money than the Republican Party, we just don't invest it in the right places," she said.
One of the Unf-ck America speakers was Hunter Kozak, a student at Utah Valley University who was talking to Charlie Kirk when he was shot. He echoed Cohen-Sanchez's comments about respecting Kirk as an organizer. Now, he's doing something similar with a different message - meeting people of different ideologies where they are and engaging in person.
"I'm really concerned about the polarizing effect that being in your own echo chamber gives you," Kozak said.
Following Kirk's death, Kozak was interviewed by the FBI and went to therapy.
Kozak called the experience traumatizing.
"I don't know if anybody could not be traumatized by what happened. I would also say that the aftermath of being accused of being involved in the event was also really, really hard," he said.
Kozak received many death threats and was the subject of conspiracies online relating to Kirk's death.
Roughly a quarter of the attendees at the Unf-ck America event were conservatives and AmericaFest attendees. It's a demographic Cohen-Sanchez wants to reach.
One of those people is conservative Luke Tagle.
Like many attendees, Tagle was in Phoenix attending AmericaFest for the first time because of Kirk's assassination. He said he thinks it would be good for the country if the left can put up an alternative to Turning Point.
"I want competition. So I want the best idea to win. I'm not someone who thinks that a conservative has to always win," he said.
Another conservative attendee was Arizona State University student Charles Rasmussen. He describes himself as a "right-wing extremist" but also said he respects streamer Steven Bonnell — who goes by the handle "Destiny."
They debated the merits of authoritarianism.
Rasmussen said he doesn't believe Turning Point will be as successful without Kirk, but sees another rising leader.
"I believe the next big meteoric riser is currently on a generational run right now, he goes by the name of Nicholas Fuentes. I believe he is winning over America's youth, and I believe even more so than that, not just among the youth but the sort of middle-aged crowds," Rasmussen said.
The rise of Fuentes and his followers, known as Groypers, is something Cohen-Sanchez fears. She doesn't want them to take control of Turning Point and the GOP.
"We are going down the Nick Fuentes-Groyper-pipeline. The train is on the way. We only have about six to nine months to stop it," she said.
Turning Point's political plans
Several AmericaFest speakers told the crowd again and again that they need to support JD Vance's bid to become the nation's 48th president in 2028.
"We are going to get my husband's friend, JD Vance, elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible," Kirk said.
Unlike last year, President Trump did not come to AmericaFest, but he did send a video message and briefly spoke over his son Donald Trump Jr.'s phone.
"Nobody did more for me than Charlie," Trump said.
Other speakers included rapper Nicki Minaj, Trump administration "border czar" Tom Homan and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Homan pledged to have 10,000 more agents on the ground
Minaj was a surprise speaker and came on with Erika Kirk. She spoke about her Christian faith and how white children shouldn't feel bad about the way they look, indicating that the left is shaming them for not looking like other racial groups, telling the audience to be who they are proudly.
Turning Point's strategy will focus largely on maintaining what Kirk calls the "red wall," which is the swing states of Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire. Keeping those states in Republican hands is expected to be key for the next election cycles.
And, of course, the speakers emphasized the importance of keeping Congress in Republican control for the remainder of Trump's term.
Arizona Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Andy Biggs also spoke.
Christianity at the forefront
Perhaps even more so than in previous years, there was a strong and consistent emphasis on Christianity at AmericaFest.
"We will always be a Christian nation," Vance said in his speech.
He said the left waged a war on Christians, but Trump stopped it.
"Of all the wars that Donald Trump has ended, that is the one we're proudest of," Vance said.
Erika Kirk said the ideological war in America is not left versus right, but good versus evil.
"We know we're on the winning side. God is so good," she said.
A handful of attendees I polled told me that they supported Kirk a bit more than Trump. Most also said it has to do with his faith and virtuousness.
"I would say that I'm more aligned with Charlie Kirk, simply because I believe Charlie Kirk had a very strong faith, and that's very important to me," Oklahoma college student Nathan Howell said. He and his family attended AmericaFest for the first time this year.
"The fruits of Christianity are men like Charlie Kirk," Vance said.
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