Turning Point USA launches chapters at over 500 high schools in Texas, governor says
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says hundreds of schools across the state are ready to host chapters of Turning Point USA's (TPUSA) high school program, which promotes conservative values for young people.
At a news conference Monday at the Governor's Mansion, Abbott highlighted the need for programs like Club America, the high school arm of TPUSA, the conservative youth organization founded in 2012 by activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September during an event on a Utah college campus.
Joined by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, TPUSA Senior Director Josh Thifault, Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath and other officials, Abbott announced that more than 500 high schools in Texas already host Club America chapters, including dozens in North Texas, and touted the state as having the most such chapters nationwide.
"There has been no moment in time during the course of this century when there was such an urgency and a need for an organization like TPUSA and Club America," said Abbott. "They have helped to restore moral clarity, constitutional principles, and our founding values. I am grateful for the young men and women behind me and their peers across the state for stepping up and identifying themselves as the future leaders of the Lone Star State."
During the event, Abbott — who formally announced his reelection campaign last month — honored Kirk's legacy in building the conservative movement and reaching young people. The governor said he and his administration are committed to fostering an environment for Club America to "expand and flourish," while warning that schools obstructing student-led efforts to form chapters would face consequences.
While clarifying there are no plans to mandate the creation of clubs, Abbott stressed student rights to organize them. "Let me be clear," he said. "Any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately to the Texas Education Agency, where I expect meaningful disciplinary action to be taken place for any stoppage of TPUSA in the great state of Texas."
Described on the organization's website as the "leading youth movement for freedom-loving American values," Club America boasts more than 1,200 high school chapters aimed at helping student leaders "promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government."
Texas isn't the first state to launch partnerships with TPUSA to help establish chapters in schools statewide. In September, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and then-Oklahoma state Supt. Ryan Walters pledged to defend students who wished to start their own Club America chapters.
Following his promise that "every high school will have a TPUSA Club America chapter" in Oklahoma, Walters resigned from his role in late September.
