Eight days after Turning Point USA’s national founder, Charlie Kirk, was fatally shot in the neck, an unprecedented number of newly inspired conservative college students filled two conference rooms for a Sept. 18 Turning Point USA forum at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF).

Since Kirk’s Sept. 10 death at a peaceful campus event in Utah , the organization he founded in 2012 has been inundated with more than 62,000 new requests from college and high school students who want to start local chapters or join the conservative youth movement. Alaska is no exception.

Before Kirk’s tragic death, the UAF chapter consisted of just four members. The Sept. 18 meeting marked a turning point for the student club.

“Our meeting yesterday had 115 people show up,” said Simon Giani, vice president of the UAF chapter. “We didn’t expect that many people. It was amazing.”

The multi-generational crowd included local conservative advocates, elected officials and candidates for office. Attendees included Fairbanks Assemblywoman Barbara Haney, State Representatives Frank Tomaszewski And Mike Prax, along with Fairbanks City Council candidate Hannah Ekalook. Dawson Mann of the local Young Republicans club was also on hand, as well as Jennifer Sampson of the Republican Women of Fairbanks. Together, this group provided pizza and helped fill a “47 hat” with money so Turning Point could buy a U.S. flag.

Turning Point is a nationwide movement that aims to educate students on the importance of freedom, free markets and limited government, while empowering young advocates to build strong high school and college campus networks, organize conferences, and utilize strategies to combat leftist ideologies.

At its core, Turning Point believes the U.S. Constitution is the most exceptional political document ever written, the United States is the greatest country in the history of the world, and capitalism is the most moral and proven economic system ever discovered.

During the Fairbanks gathering, Turning Point officers asked students what they want the newly revitalized chapter to in the coming weeks and months ahead.

“We asked people questions and walked around the room and let people talk and speak their mind,” Giani recalled, adding that the club had to change venues several times as RSVPs kept rolling in.

“We had to switch meeting places three times because we kept meeting the capacity of all the rooms,” he said. “And we almost reached the capacity of two conference rooms put together.”

Before Sept. 18, the UAF club was barely viable. It formed in 2019 but essentially shut down during Covid, with just a handful of students who occasionally gathered for private conversations.

Kirk’s assassination changed everything.

“It was definitely rough,” Giani said. “I had only been a part of the chapter for three weeks before Charlie died, but I had been following Turning Point for years. I loved Charlie. I loved watching him and listening to him talk, and I gained a lot of inspiration from him. The whole reason I am open about my political beliefs is because of the things he said and how he was so open about it. When Charlie died, it felt like a park of me died too.”

Initially, Giani said the local chapter was taken aback by Kirk’s murder and were unsure about how Turning Point would proceed.

There’s a reason freedom of speech and freedom to speak your mind is the very First Amendment, and that’s what Charlie stood for.

“I took a step back and really thought about it for a while,” Giani said. “I came to the conclusion that Charlie wouldn’t have wanted us to step back or stop sharing our opinions. He wouldn’t want the movement to die with him.”

He said a former Turning Point UAF member told the current student chapter that “a million Charlie Kirk’s were born” the day he was killed.

“Before, a lot of people were afraid to speak their opinions,” Giani continued. “They didn’t want to get judged. After Charlie died people started thinking ‘maybe I should start speaking out more.’ Even the high school chapter up here said that. They didn’t want to speak out, but now they do.”

So far, the UAF chapter hasn’t received any pushback from university officials, but they have experienced vandalism and theft when it comes to advertising their meetings around campus.

“All our posters keep getting ripped down,” Giani noted. “We walk by and see our poster up and five minutes later they’re gone. I walked past two posters this morning and they were gone. The pushback has come more from students than anything else, but we have over 200 posters, so we’ll just keep putting them up.”

Moving forward, Giani said UAF’s chapter plans to hold an ongoing series of public events – talks, luncheons, friendly debates and special presentations from national speakers.

“We really want to get more involved in the community as well,” he said. “We found out about a local high school chapter yesterday and so we’re going to do some outreach work with them.”

“It’s been a rough time, but we just want people to be comfortable enough to come together and speak their minds and do it all to the glory of God,” Giani noted. “That’s our main goal.”

He added that Kirk’s death has galvanized a whole movement.

“More than people realize,” Giani observed. “Our mission is to stand together and be open about what we believe. There’s a reason freedom of speech and freedom to speak your mind is the very First Amendment, and that’s what Charlie stood for.”

TAKING ACTION

The UAF Turning point chapter meets every Thursday, on campus, at 6 p.m. Those who wish to get involved with planning and organizing future events are encouraged to attend.

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