Turning Point is at a Turning Point — and Headed for Holiness?

Turning Point USA is spiraling into irrelevance, after peaking in 2023 with a rally of 13,000 right-wing racists and antisemites. Today it is reduced to a feud over a local city council member.

It may re-emerge as a Christian nationalist megachurch. Without multimillionaire hater Kirk, TPUSA may become just a ministry with a mailing list.

Kirk was the face, fundraising engine, and foul mouth of TPUSA. Without his grinning hate speech, the organization is now headed by a fading, churchy beauty contest winner.

New Sunday-school leader

The untested new leader is Erika Frantzve Kirk, age 36, who is likely to turn Turning Point into a Christian Nationalist faction. In her work, she emphasizes faith, family and forgiveness.

These are totally new ideas for the vicious Turning Point.

Critics question her depth of political understanding and organizational experience. Brought up as a strict Catholic, and she graduated from evangelical Christian Liberty University. She is now a doctoral candidate at Liberty University, pursuing studies in Christian Leadership and Biblical Studies.  

She was Miss Arizona USA in 2012. Her projects include the Jesusy Midweek Rise Up podcast and Biblein365, a Bible-reading program.

She also launched the Proclaim clothing brand, which features bible quotes on hats, luggage tags, plastic straws, T-shirts and socks. However, a visit to the website shows that all the merchandise is “sold out.”

Get-rich-quick scheme

Kirk used TP as a get-rich hustle to grow his net worth to $12 million.

• Kirk paid himself $400,000 as CEO.
• Kirk charged between $25,000 to $40,000 per speech, which contributed roughly $500,000 annually to his income.
• He and Erika flipped their 6,800-square-foot mega mansion in Scottsdale for $5.25 million, just months after they bought the 10234 E. Journey Lane palace for $4.75 million.
• They own a luxury apartment at 121 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, which rents for $5,200 per month. It offers a 5th-story view of New York City.
• He also owned an oceanfront condo in Florida worth $855,000 and a cozy apartment in Phoenix.
• Kirk’s podcast generated an estimated $1.2 million per year in ad revenue and sponsorships.
• He authored several books, which generated around $1.5 million in royalties over the years.

Donors in doubt

TP’s future remains genuinely uncertain as it navigates internal ideological divisions and donor conflicts. Republicans say that the future looks murky for Turning Point.

Just before his assassination, Kirk wrote a WhatsApp text saying, “Just lost another huge Jewish donor. $2 million a year because we won’t cancel Tucker,” referring to his refusal to disinvite the notorious Tucker Carlson from an upcoming TP USA event. The donor was Robert Shillman, a pro-Israel tech mogul.

Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for TPUSA, said Kirk’s texts were “consistent with public frustrations he voiced many times.”

Conservative podcaster Michael Knowles said Kirk was the unifying figure for the movement and predicted that “in the longer run, there will be various factions fighting for power.”

“How it looks like without Charlie Kirk, I think we’re all going to try to figure that out. It’s going to be a curve,” said Aubree Hudson, president of a TPUSA chapter.

“There’s a lot of discussion about who will ‘replace’ Charlie Kirk. The answer is that nobody will. There will never be another Charlie Kirk,” said conservative podcaster Matt Walsh.

Mammoth Payroll

Turning Point has a number of problems, including its mammoth payroll. According to AZ Central:

• It has 458 paid employees.
• TP provided first-class or charter travel to key employees or officers.
• Philanthropic Gift Officer John McGovern collected a $457,000 salary
• Daniel Flood, Head of Risk Strategy, received a salary of $269,000.
• Hutz Hertzberg, the Chief Education Officer of the Turning Point Academy, was paid $265,000. 
• Tyler Bowyer, the Chief Operating Officer, was paid $240,296. Bowyer was one of 18 people indicted by a grand jury in April 2024 in a case alleging a conspiracy to keep Trump in the White House in 2020 by creating a slate of false electors to send to Congress.

Jettisoning money in many ways

The Associated Press reported that TPUSA has made millions in payments to companies controlled by key figures within the organization.

• It paid for Kirk’s extravagant wedding reception.
• TP spent $10.6 million training nearly 10,000 pastors on how to “eradicate wokeism from the church” in 2024.
• The “boots on the ground” effort has a budget of $7.9 million to control 1,300 college and high school chapters ($5,800 per chapter annually), which are facing student backlash. [Note: Turning Point pretends it has 3,500 chapters.]
• The Turning Point PAC spent $7.1 million in the 2024 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records. 
• Turning Point Action PAC paid $1.3 million in 2024 to Mosaic Event Productions, which puts on its major events. 
• Turning Point PAC paid more than $1 million to 1TEN LLC, a firm owned by Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman, for texting and media services. Hoffman was also indicted in the 2020 fake electors case.
• The group spent $873,000 to support Trump and $508,000 opposing former Vice President Kamala Harris. 
• Turning Point paid $430,000 to a print shop owned by the late Tea Party activist Bill Montgomery.
• The PAC wasted $225,000 to boost Dr. Mehmet Oz’s failed Pennsylvania Senate bid in 2022.
• Fundraising companies, GSM Strategy LLC and Lionrock Ventures LLC, were paid $200,000 

Then there are the scandals:

David Glienke, the Turning Point Secretary and Treasurer, is also the president of ClearCoast Wealth Management in California. Glienke was sued for $100,000 in 2023 for allegedly misrepresenting a corporate bond investment.

Turning Point PAC paid Superfeed, a mobile get-out-the-vote app, $120,000 in 2024. COO Bowyer and widow Erika Kirk’s mother, Lori Frantzve, are on the Superfeed Technologies Inc. board of directors.

What next?

Will Erika Frantzve Kirk, a Millennial fashion model who is a close personal friend of Jesus, be able to propel the youth group into more racist, antisemitic, homophobic, and anti-immigrant hatred?

TP had revenue of $85 million in fiscal 2024. Will her Ph.D. in Christian Leadership and Biblical Studies teach her how to raise $85 million?

Will greedy officers who got rich at Turning Point and far-right reactionary donors undermine her?

It seems unlikely she will name Islamic people “terrorists,” or call NBA women players “pot-smoking Black lesbians,” or demand that gay people be “stoned to death” – as Charlie Kirk did.

We’ll see if the blond holy roller stays true to her faith.