The Turning Point USA (TPUSA) high school program, known as Club America, has more than doubled in size following the assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk. The number of chapters grew from about 1,200 to over 2,700 in just a few weeks, a surge TPUSA attributes to renewed enthusiasm for Kirk’s vision of student-led conservative activism in schools.
The announcement came during an episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, now hosted by TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet. Joining him was Nick Cocca, Enterprise Director for Club America, who said, “There are two types of high schools in this country: high schools that have Club America chapters and high schools that will soon have Club America chapters.”
Cocca confirmed that more than 1,500 new chapters have launched since Kirk’s murder. The group also reported receiving 120,000 total requests to start chapters across both high schools and college campuses as of late September. Kolvet reiterated Kirk’s long-standing goal of placing a Club America chapter in every U.S. high school. “The high school team has just informed me that we’ve already started over 1,500 new Club America chapters across the country,” he said. “For context, we had around 1,200 before this, more than doubling our chapter total. We won’t stop until every HS has a Club America chapter.”
In the weeks since the assassination, some Christian leaders have also reported a noticeable rise in youth church attendance, calling it the “Charlie Kirk effect.” One Catholic campus ministry leader noted, “I have not talked to anyone who has not seen an increase in Mass attendance,” with some reporting as much as a 15 percent increase.
Despite the outpouring of support for TPUSA, the leftist Anti-Defamation League (ADL) continued to list TPUSA in its “Glossary of Extremism” even after Kirk’s murder. The ADL’s position drew sharp criticism, particularly as it also defended Antifa as largely non-violent. In response, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel announced the bureau would sever ties with the ADL, citing concerns over political bias.
