OMAHA, Neb. — Eight Republican governors nationwide are backing efforts to establish conservative political clubs in every public high school following last year’s killing of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, claiming these initiatives will protect conservative student voices from educational suppression.
The gubernatorial support for this conservative organization has ignited controversy over free speech policies in public schools, as opponents point out that many of these same Republican officials have implemented restrictions on classroom discussions about sexual education, LGBTQ+ topics and other subjects.
Religious references by some governors when endorsing these clubs have further intensified the controversy.
During a press conference last month where she announced Arkansas’s collaboration with Turning Point USA, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated that divine intervention had helped Kirk expand the conservative organization and expressed hope it would inspire “the exact type of civic engagement that we want to see” from high school students.
“It’s never too early to learn the values of faith and freedom that power our country,” she said.
Lily Alderson, a student at Fayetteville High School who leads the Young Democrats club, believes the governor overstepped constitutional boundaries. Alderson contends that Sanders’s religious endorsement breaks the principle requiring government neutrality toward religious beliefs.
“We’re a public school,” Alderson said. “We shouldn’t be a school — or a state, even — that is telling people what they should believe in.”
Lukas Klaus, who heads the Turning Point USA chapter at the same school, views the Republican governors’ actions as protecting conservative students’ right to expression.
“I’ve heard numerous other stories from around the states of Club America chapters trying to get started where they’re having serious problems with the administration straight-up saying ‘no,’” said Klaus. He noted he’s never encountered instances of public schools blocking Young Democrats clubs.
Over recent months, Republican leadership in Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Montana, Florida, Tennessee and Indiana have all declared partnerships with Turning Point USA to encourage Club America chapters in every high school within their borders.
Turning Point USA reports nearly 3,400 Club America chapters currently operate nationwide, with additional state partnerships being developed.
Though these partnerships don’t mandate schools to create conservative clubs, they establish that school administrators cannot deny requests to form such groups.
Turning Point USA launched in 2012 focusing on college campuses, positioning itself as a gathering place for young people supporting conservative principles. Kirk served as co-founder and primary spokesperson, gaining recognition for his “Prove Me Wrong” campus events where he challenged students to debate his conservative positions on political and cultural matters. A sniper killed Kirk in early September while he was speaking at a Utah college campus.
Conservative supporters celebrated Kirk as a free speech advocate, while critics condemned his statements that many Americans considered hostile toward LGBTQ+ individuals, non-Christians, racial minorities and women.
Some critics experienced Republican backlash for allegedly disrespecting Kirk’s memory, resulting in terminations by universities, athletic organizations and media outlets. Florida’s education commissioner pledged to investigate teachers who made objectionable remarks about Kirk. In Texas, an educators’ union has filed a lawsuit against the state education department, alleging an inappropriate “wave of retaliation” against public school staff for their social media posts following the assassination.
Teachers unions and civil rights organizations have criticized the governors’ exclusive endorsement of Turning Point USA over other student organizations.
Tim Royers, who leads the Nebraska State Education Association, the state’s primary teachers union, questioned how Republican officials would respond if a Democratic governor promoted democratic socialist clubs in every high school.
“They would be running to the press to talk about how awful that is,” Royers said. “How is this fundamentally any different?”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas characterized the state’s club support as “differential treatment based on the content or viewpoint of the clubs, and a problem under the First Amendment.”
Turning Point USA representative Matt Shupe dismissed ACLU objections as contradictory, citing the civil rights organization’s commitment to defending free speech protections.
“The state of Arkansas is not forming our chapters; they’re not doing our job or our students’ jobs for us, nor are they saying other groups can’t be formed,” Shupe said in an email. “They’re simply stating students cannot be blocked from forming a Club America or a TPUSA college chapter when students want to start one.”
