5 Takeaways From Turning Point’s Plan to ‘Commandeer’ Campus Elections

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The 28-page Turning Point USA brochure is titled “The Foundational Structure For Winning Back Our Universities,” and it is clearly written with the organization’s donors in mind. Its pages offer a glimpse into the funding and strategy that the controversial conservative nonprofit group has used to try to influence student-government elections at colleges and universities nationwide.

A year ago, The Chronicle investigated Turning Point’s student-election activity, which in some cases appeared to be in violation of university campaign-finance rules limiting how much money students can spend on these races. Several students who had received money or supplies from Turning Point denied any connection to the group, but then were forced to abruptly end their candidacies when campus newspapers obtained proof of Turning Point’s role.

At the time, the Turning Point founder and executive director, Charlie Kirk, denied that there was a stealth effort underway to get conservatives elected to these positions.

“That’s completely ludicrous and ridiculous, that there’s some sort of secret plan,” Kirk told The Chronicle last year.

The Turning Point brochure, however, is essentially a playbook for making sure that conservative students seize control of student-government president positions — along with assuming other positions of influence on campus, such as fraternity-chapter presidents.

“Our first and primary goal is to commandeer the top office of Student Body President at each of the most recognizable and influential American universities,” the brochure says in its second paragraph.

Turning Point did not respond to emailed questions from The Chronicle about the brochure. Here are five key takeaways from the document:

1. Turning Point claims to have helped 54 conservative candidates become student-government president.

Turning Point also boasts that candidates “we have supported and financed will have direct oversight and influence over more than $500 million in university tuition and student fee appropriations.” A Politico story published on Friday, however, included statements from some of these candidates, and they disputed the idea that they received help from Turning Point. For that reason, The Chronicle is not publishing the names of the candidates.

2. It’s a three-phase plan.

Ultimately, the brochure says, Turning Point’s goal is to “target every Division I school in the country and over 100 critical universities in ‘swing states’ before 2020.” The document states that Phase 1 has been successfully implemented, and that “we are now scaling to Phase 2.” It identifies dozens of “targeted races” in Phase 2 — in Florida alone, there are 25 colleges listed. The estimated cost for Phase 2: $2,206,000.

3. Turning Point outlines why it is spending so much to swing student races.

Page 20 of the brochure outlines some of the goals that Turning Point hopes to achieve by spending big on student-government races. Among them: “block all boycott, divestment and sanctions” efforts on college campuses, and defund progressive groups that are regularly funded by student fees. Turning Point also hopes to “develop our own national speaker’s circuit and tour and forums using student resources to message American Exceptionalism and Free Market ideals on campus.”

4. Turning Point says its victories have already influenced student-government policy.

The brochure praises a former student-government president at the University of Colorado at Boulder for successfully pushing for the elimination of campus “free-speech zones” across the state. That former student-body president, Marcus Fotenos, refused to answer questions last year about Turning Point’s connection to his campaign. The brochure states, “Marcus is now on our staff and helping to implement same policies in 5 other states.”

5. The document includes detailed organizational charts.

Turning Point’s brochure provides specific details on how it staffs its support services for conservative student-government candidates. A “Victory Director” serves as a “recruiter and campaign manager.” That person is supervised by a “Quartermaster,” who is responsible for four to eight colleges, and above that staffer are two deputy national victory directors and a national victory director.

Andy MacCracken, executive director and co-founder of the National Campus Leadership Council, reviewed the Turning Point brochure at The Chronicle’s request. MacCracken’s group provides guidance and leadership training to student-government presidents around the country.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said of the document. “How big of an operation it is, how underground it was for so long, and for it to be at the budget levels and the staffing levels, the hierarchy … I would call that unprecedented.”

See the whole Turning Point document here.

Michael Vasquez is a senior investigative reporter. Follow him on Twitter @MrMikeVasquez, or email him at michael.vasquez@chronicle.com.