Ollie Mintz sought to charter a Turning Point USA chapter at Baylor because he felt there was something different about the late founder Charlie Kirk — something that set him apart from other conservative activists.
But now, Mintz says he has questions as the organization continues to diverge from what he remembers.
“I think Charlie had a vision for what Turning Point was, and I don’t think that they’re meeting it now,” Mintz said.
Turning Point USA is bringing its national This is the Turning Point Tour to Baylor on April 22 — more than 15 years after Kirk received an acceptance letter from the University. The tour comes to Waco Hall with three speakers: Donald Trump Jr., Border Czar Tom Homan, and Benny Johnson.
“Each stop is a chance to honor Charlie’s mission and keep the fight alive,” reads the registration page on Turning Point’s website. “We know he wouldn’t want us to surrender or be coerced into silence. Free speech is only free if we use our voices.”
Turning Point’s imminent arrival has stirred tension in the Baylor community, with students, faculty, and alumni questioning what hosting a major far-right organization with overtly controversial stances says about the University’s culture, administration, and Christian mission.
Shortly after Kirk received his 2012 Baylor offer, he sat down with former University President Ken Starr. Kirk told Starr that, instead of taking the traditional college route, he had a different path in mind: to start a conservative political organization geared toward high school and college students.
In an interview following Kirk’s death, Starr’s wife, Alice, told KWTX her husband advised Charlie to “go pursue your passion and your dream.”
Kirk did just that and, shortly after, founded Turning Point USA. The grassroots political organization became a multimillion-dollar powerhouse and the driving force behind the current state of conservative politics on American college campuses.
Kirk and Starr maintained a close personal friendship even after Kirk declined his offer to Baylor. Starr served on the advisory board at Turning Point USA, attended Kirk’s wedding, and went to several events that Kirk hosted at Mar-a-Lago, according to KWTX.
When Starr passed away in 2022, Kirk tweeted, “Very sad to hear about the passing of Ken Starr, someone I was always proud to call a friend and mentor. America lost a true Patriot today. Erika and I are praying for his wife, Alice, and the entire Starr family.”
Whether it be because of his relationship with Starr, his own admission to the University, or other reasons entirely, it was important to Kirk that Baylor have a Turning Point chapter. When Baylor denied students’ requests to charter one on campus in 2020, Kirk got involved.
Mintz was the first president of Turning Point at Baylor and one of the students who initially submitted the charter request.
“Charlie Kirk had gotten wind of what was going on at Baylor. He then released a tweet … calling out Baylor for rejecting us. This got a lot of traffic for us … because he had a huge following at the time,” Mintz said.
“This is a big mistake by @Baylor,” Kirk tweeted in 2020. “Would hate to see their federal research money be pulled due to this violation of the First Amendment. Why is Baylor siding with the Marxist anti-American left and silencing young patriots? Reverse course!”
Just under a year later, in February 2021, Turning Point was chartered at Baylor as an official organization. With the charter came access to on-campus resources and facilities, which the students viewed as a victory, given they had been operating out of coffee shops and apartments up to that point. Before the charter, there were several conservative student groups already on campus — but Mintz said those groups “weren’t doing enough.”
Later that year, Kirk made his first official visit as a representative of Turning Point to Waco as a part of his Exposing Critical Race Tour. The event was held off campus at the Waco Convention Center and sponsored by the Turning Point chapter at Baylor.
“Before the event even went on, we got about an hour with him and Erika [Kirk]. It was nice. He was, like, ‘I’m very proud of you guys. You guys are doing really good work,’” Mintz said.
But Mintz also says Turning Point has changed — particularly since Kirk’s death.
“I don’t hate Turning Point … I just have my questions … [It’s] definitely different than when Charlie was running it,” he said.
Mintz explained how Turning Point’s events used to operate on a “smaller scale,” with Kirk debating with and talking to students being the main focus.
“I think now it’s kind of become more of a spectacle,” he later said.
Skye Perryman (‘03), president and CEO of Democracy Forward, spoke to a room full of Baylor faculty, students, and administrators at the Whitten Endowed Lecture shortly after the Turning Point tour was publicly announced.
“Many in the Baylor community are, of course, struggling with the decision to have Turning Point here on campus,” Perryman said. “… certainly a number of Turning Point’s positions are contrary to the way that many of us have understood teachings of our faith.”
Alongside Kirk’s personal connections to Baylor, the University’s Christian identity plays a significant role in the controversy. Turning Point’s association with Christian nationalism — an ideology which emphasizes promoting Christian views to achieve dominance in politics and culture — has only increased in recent years as it became increasingly common for Kirk to reference his faith when discussing his stance on political issues.
When Turning Point was initially founded in 2012, its purpose was to organize and mobilize students to advocate for free markets and limited government. However, as the operation grew, its emphasis on the Christian faith grew with it. Turning Point later founded a branch called TPUSA Faith, whose goal is to “unite the Church around primary doctrine and to eliminate wokeism from the American pulpit.”
Peter Fernandez, current president of Baylor’s Turning Point chapter, told The Lariat, “Nothing that Turning Point stands for, and nothing that Turning Point speaks about, is contradictory to Christian … values.”
But other Baylor community members argue the opposite — that hosting the Turning Point event actually undermines the University’s stated Christian mission. They argue the University is amplifying certain voices at the expense of others, pointing to its decision to host Turning Point while LGBTQ+ students have historically been sidelined.
“There’s just no way that one can credibly claim that this university can endorse some of the most controversial statements of Turning Point USA … while denying the voices of other Christian communities on this campus because of their sexual orientation, because their gender identity, or because of their … audacity, to support those … communities,” Perryman argued in her lecture.
Perryman offered her own explanation for why the University approved Turning Point’s visit: “I had been left with only one possible explanation about why Baylor is sanctioning an event by Turning Point USA in Waco Hall — and that explanation is fear,” Perryman said in her lecture, mentioning a fear of losing donors, upsetting trustees, and the right-wing press.
In response, a coalition of Baylor student groups is organizing an alternative event to take place on the same day as the Turning Point event.
The alternative option, titled All Are Neighbors, will feature two gay Christian advocate speakers: Kelley Robinson, president of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, and Paul Raushenbush, president of the social justice nonprofit Interfaith Alliance. Its purpose is to celebrate political and religious diversity as well as inclusivity on campus.
Amid the conflict, Baylor President Linda Livingstone released a letter to the University.
“In a world of increasing discord and conflict, Baylor has an opportunity as a Christian institution to share our expertise and use our faith foundation to bring people together,” she wrote.
Later in the same letter, she wrote: “Remember that while we may not always agree on the subject matter, the Baylor campus community will remain respectful, and we will strive to follow Christ’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves.”
The Baptist General Convention of Texas responded directly to the All Are Neighbors event in a statement:
We are aware of recent reports regarding the student-initiated “All Are Neighbors” event being planned at Baylor University and are hearing strong concerns from members of the Texas Baptists family. We take these concerns seriously. At this time, we are working with University leadership to gather additional information, convey the seriousness of the concerns being shared, and consider an appropriate course of action. We value our longstanding partnership with Baylor University and remain wholly committed to our long-held view of Biblical sexuality as we equip churches to be faithful to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
Baylor is not the only university whose community has expressed concern over its selection for the This is the Turning Point Tour.
The second leg of the tour kicked off at George Washington University. Headline speakers included White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk. Their presence received pushback from other campus organizations.
GW Reproductive Autonomy and Gender Equity — or GW RAGE, posted on Instagram, encouraging students to boycott the event, writing “GW RAGE is appalled that the George Washington University would allow a group that is known to pursue an agenda that harms marginalized students to speak on campus.”
But at Baylor, the debate over Turning Point’s visit takes on an added dimension — the University’s Christian mission, and the question of how it shapes which voices are welcomed on campus.
