TEXAS — The murder of conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk mobilized young conservatives in numbers never seen by Javon Evans.
Evans oversees the Gulf Coast region of Club America, a branch of Turning Point that helps high schoolers start clubs focused on constitutional liberties, free-market capitalism and limited government.
“I started this semester with two clubs, two Club America chapters,” said Evans. “I’m [currently] at 44.”
Text messages from state chapter leaders of the Young Republican National Federation discovered by Politico revealed racist, homophobic and antisemitic messages. The 15,000-member organization for Republicans 18 to 40 years old condemned the messages and called for the resignation of those involved. But when asked, the Young Republicans of Texas, an auxiliary group for the Texas GOP, said it was “easy” not to condemn the chat.
“I don’t think it’s a huge story,” said SMU political science professor Matthew Wilson. “But it certainly is something that the conservative movement, and particularly among young people, does not need at this juncture.”
Young Democrats see the chat as an opportunity to attract voters.
“Young Democrats ain’t have no scandal like this. I think the Young Republicans have to look in the mirror because there were some hurtful things in those messages,” said Bruce Johnson, the Texas representative for Young Democrats of America.
But Evans isn’t worried. Instead he is focusing on how Turning Point is shaping the Republican Party with young grassroots activism in Kirk’s wake.
“Charlie looked at that, and he said, this is perfect,” said Evans. “We have an opportunity, something that no one else has been able to do in the past, which is get the youth conservative. And the proof is in the pudding. Gen Z men, a majority swung in favor of the president during the 2024 election.”
Attracting more Gen Z women is what one political scientist thinks is the next frontier for the young conservative movement.
“To persuade young women of the validity of conservative ideas and to get more of them into the Republican coalition, because there’s a big gender divide among young voters,” said Wilson.
The older and younger factions of the GOP are more ideologically aligned than in the Democratic Party, where there is more age-based tension.
“Younger Democrats seem to be trying to push the Democratic Party to places that it doesn’t really want to go. For example, a pretty strongly anti-Israel stance, a pretty open embrace of socialism, what some people call quote unquote wokeness,” said Wilson.
Johnson says younger Democratic Party members want to be heard.
“Every generation has had you fight for change, and this is the first one that we’re being told to sit on the sideline,” said Johnson.
While Democrats determine the best balancing act to earn votes and keep young members enthusiastic. Republicans’ generational similarities could determine which party young voters flock too.