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A Turning Point USA (TPUSA) field representative in Texas cited “unprecedented growth” of TPUSA chapters in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
“It has been unprecedented,” Paige Rasmussen told Fox News Digital.
“In such dark times, we weren’t really sure, you know, initially, what do we do now? Where do we go from here? And it became apparent very quickly where we go from here and that’s up, and it has not slowed down,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen covers the “Lone Star territory” for TPUSA.
A field representative’s job is to recruit students and host events. Some of their responsibilities entail administrative tasks. Rasmussen said her job is split between being on campus with the students and answering phone calls to make sure events are planned for the students.
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In the wake of Kirk’s death, more students flocked to TPUSA chapters, Rasmussen reported.
“It’s just been growing and growing,” Rasmussen told Fox News Digital. She continued, “I mean, we’re seeing hundreds of thousands of students wanting to get involved, thousands of chapters starting at the high school and college level. So, you know, it’s something that you can’t really explain other than its courage and its faith and it’s time for students to stand up and they are doing such an amazing job at having that courage, especially on their college campuses.”
Rasmussen presides over the University of Texas at Tyler, where a new chapter was approved by the university earlier this month.
“It was pretty quiet for a while, but after Charlie passed, we gained almost 100 members, so it was really cool,” Reece Cooper, the president of the TPUSA chapter at UT-Tyler told Fox News Digital.
The chapter started in January, but was not officially recognized by the university until this month. Cooper said that the group struggled to find a faculty advisor to sponsor their organization due to the overt political implications of TPUSA being associated with conservative politics. Jonathan Roncancio, the vice president of the chapter, said that a majority of the faculty are more left-leaning and that the group did not try hard enough to secure sponsorship from an advisor.
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UT-Tyler officials told Fox News Digital that the chapter applied for registration on Sept. 19, and the university worked with the students to facilitate the process. The chapter was approved on Oct. 9.
The chapter eventually found an advisor and was approved after Kirk’s death, which dominated headlines and launched TPUSA into prominence.
Roncancio added that they noticed the growth in a GroupMe chat that involved the members.
“We had a lot of people join GroupMe. It went from around 10 people to 120 people overnight and that was obviously due to the interest in Turning Point. People were seeing it on the news and wanted to learn more about it. And so we’ve had more people come to meetings and come up to us wondering what we’re doing on campus and just what’s happening,” Roncancio told Fox News Digital.
Kirk built a following over the past five years touring the country to debate college students on culture war issues such as gender ideology, racial divisions and the merits of Christian and American values in general.
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Kirk, who was assassinated while speaking at a college event in Utah, left behind a wife, Erika, and two young children. Ever since his death, TPUSA, an organization founded by Kirk, has received overwhelming support.
Rasmussen projects further growth because a revival is sweeping the country, inspiring young people to stand up for what they believe in.
“I don’t see it slowing down because I don’t think this is a situation where people are just seeing it online and want to join something that’s popular,” she said.
She concluded, “I think this is a revival and this is where students and just people in general, whether they’re out of school, are feeling this conviction in their souls that it’s time to stand up and be courageous about their values and their beliefs. And so I’m just happy to be with these students and happy to help them and be a part of the movement.”
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