Turning Point USA at Webster University Hosts First Meeting

Turning Point USA (TPUSA) at Webster conducted its first meeting on Feb. 5, attended by an audience of various political backgrounds, including three university staff members and 13 students. Club president Madison Cox began by standing in front of the room, fielding questions about the organization.

“My whole goal of starting this was just to give kids a place to come talk without feeling judged,” Cox said.

TPUSA is a nationwide nonprofit organization created with the goal to “identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government.” While the organization follows conservative values, it is registered to be nonpartisan in nature.

Founder Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist and online influencer, had become increasingly popular online, especially as an ally of President Donald Trump. Along with his rising popularity, Kirk was touring campuses across the country when he was shot dead on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University — an act of political violence after rising tensions.

The group’s college program has over 800 chapters, each of whom receives a variety of free resources, such as banners, event ideas, social media graphics and more, without any charge to the individual chapters. For Cox, this was a real benefit to using the TPUSA name.

“I think a lot of people, respectfully, see our name and are scared — and that’s the whole point, to show them ‘hey, we’re not scared.’ It’s important for them to come see us in person and what we’re like,” Cox said. “And like I said, answer any questions. They can come talk to me, you know, in like, two minutes, I can tell them what we care about here at Webster: promoting freedom.”

Kirk’s death sparked a massive amount of emotionally charged reactions from both sides. But Cox and club treasurer Kevin Padilla were moved to action, separately reaching out to the organization for a chapter at Webster, which began taking shape in mid-October.

“I really like the idea of bringing people together, having conversations. I think near the end of Charlie’s life, he started summarizing [this idea], right? When people stop talking, bad things happen,” Padilla said.

Padilla sees these impacts mirrored within the modern state of politics, noting the division that has begun to happen between neighbors, states and even nations.

“I think my personal belief is [that] politicians seek to divide us because as long as me and you are arguing and fighting, they can do whatever they want,” Padilla said. “And I’m not a fan of that at all.”

While the group has created controversy across campus, with an outburst of negative student reactions on social media, club adviser William Ratz has a different vision of the group.

“I hope that’s really something that this student group really figures out is common ground amongst all of our students,” Ratz said. “And I think that’s one thing that will differentiate this group at Webster from groups [in] other places and from the national organization, is that TPUSA Webster University will be for Webster and for all Webster students. That’s why I agreed to be their adviser.”

As per Student Government Association (SGA) rules, a club has to have 10 interested members, an adviser and be voted in as an official organization through SGA senators.

Unlike most clubs, TPUSA at Webster attended two SGA meetings before being approved; its first petition for approval had brought the meeting into overtime.

While searching for interested members before officially creating the club, Cox found many international students interested in joining TPUSA at Webster, stating they were interested in practicing their freedoms in the United States.

Steve Samson, an international student from India, attended the club’s first meeting after hearing about Kirk and searching for a safe space to talk about similar issues.

“Me being a Christian, we’re a minority in India, so I’ve had many experiences where we’ve had our freedoms taken away or limited,” Samson said. “Like, if you want to do something that’s related to faith, we never really got full support from the government or courts over there because we didn’t have the full freedom to do what we wanted.”

But others had a different perspective of the group. A Webster student, remaining anonymous as they wish not to be associated with TPUSA and its “dangerous rhetoric,” attended the meeting in opposition to the group.

“It’s good to talk to other people that have different beliefs. I would say I’m not a fan of this organization on a national level, its rhetoric, the beliefs and thoughts that are associated with it,” the student said. “I know there’s a big concern about Webster people not being able to voice their opinions and whatnot, but does Turning Point make other people think that they’re unsafe?”

While unsure about the club’s future, the student plans on remaining somewhat involved as time goes on.

“I’m curious what goes on there, I’m interested to see [more] about their work — how we remain nonpartisan and not supporting anybody,” the student added.

Others interested in the group included students such as Mary Valentino, who had been keeping up with TPUSA for the last couple of years. Kirk was “a big influence” for her as she supported the work he did.

“I think that it is great to have a place like this at a school that is pretty liberal. I mean, I know that’s in the name, we’re a ‘liberal arts school,’ but there are other majors, there are other opinions, feelings out there, and I think that it should be a good balance of all of them, not just an echo chamber,” Valentino said.

TPUSA at Webster hopes to discuss a variety of topics that students may be interested in at their future meetings. Some student-proposed topics include Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Epstein Files, freedom and artificial intelligence.

However, there is a potential for more topics to be discussed, such as diving into the meanings of various constitutional amendments, voting rights and partnering with other groups on campus. The group also plans to meet on a weekly or biweekly basis, as well as table around campus, to increase their presence.

Its next meeting time is currently unestablished, the group is planning on hosting a watch party for the State of the Union Address on Feb. 24.

Those interested in learning more about TPUSA are encouraged to reach out through its email, tpusa.websteru@gmail.com. For more information on upcoming events, the group utilizes the handle, @tpusa_webster, on Instagram and X. However, comments on both platforms have since been turned off following “hateful and dangerous rhetoric received” from other students at Webster