Conservative advocate Erika Kirk was in Little Rock Wednesday, joining Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to promote student advocacy group Turning Point USA.
Kirk, the group's CEO, used the event to promote outreach to high school and college students. The high school branch of Turning Point is sometimes called Club America. A representative from Turning Point says they want to eventually create thousands of clubs across the country.
The event was flanked by a large crowd of students, along with prominent conservative officials.
Kirk came into public prominence after her husband and then-TPUSA CEO Charlie Kirk was shot and killed last year.
Sanders called Kirk a “great friend," and said her husband's assassination was a “dark reminder that we live in a world full of sin and evil.”
Sanders signed a proclamation “encouraging” students to start Turning Point USA chapters at their high schools.
The proclamation can't force students to start chapters — it only asks high schools and colleges to “accept students’ reasonable participation” in political groups along with their right to speech. It also discourages "public schools from discriminating against free speech.”
In her remarks, Kirk said students starting Turning Point USA chapters often suffer discrimination for their opinions.
“If you are a chapter leader, or you are part of a chapter and you are getting persecuted for your faith and your values, count it all joy,” Kirk said, quoting the Biblical Epistle of James.
“If you are a believer in Christ and you are getting persecuted for your faith and your values, someone comes up and flips your table and throws your resources on the ground, count it all joy.”
Kirk addressed the students in the crowd directly.
“Don't let anyone disenfranchise you because you are a young man,” she said. “Especially if you are a young, white, male man. We need strong men out there.”
Sanders echoed her comments to roaring applause.
“Let me assure you that conservatives have just as much of a right to speak their mind as anyone else in the country,” she said. “And we will stand up for you.”
Lucas Klaus, a Junior at Fayetteville High School, talked about starting a chapter of Club America.
“As the second of five children,” he said. “I grew up taking verbal and sometimes physical beatings from my siblings. These early battles taught me resilience, to stand firm in my beliefs while truly hearing others out.”
He said DEI and climate change are not treated with skepticism in school. Klaus said his path to create the chapter was “not easy," and that he faced “extra approval requirements” and disdain from other students who tore down posters and protested meetings. Eventually, Klaus says the police “needed to become involved” for safety reasons.
The event was flanked by a group of counter-protesters outside the Governor's Mansion. Protestors held signs saying the event was itself a form of indoctrination.
In addition to the protest, the Young Democrats of Arkansas held a preemptive press conference to address the event. President Billy Cook said students begin chapters of the YDA organically, without state backing, and called the governor’s move an abuse of her state power.
“They will attempt to force ideological, partisan political clubs into public high schools and universities across the state,” said Cook. “We respect the rights of students to organize regardless of what political party they’re organizing for. When someone uses their state power and resources, however, to try and unfairly influence our students, we will stand up, speak out loudly, about that overreach.”
Cook said the Young Democrats of Arkansas has expanded recently without any help from the state, stressing that students often initiate the conversation about beginning a new chapter.
Zayd Kelley, chair of the College Democrats of Arkansas, announced the group has seen historic growth within the last year, bringing YDA chapters to eight new college campuses. Kelley added that these chapters brought within them over 100 new signups.
Ret. Col. Marcus Jones, chair of the Democratic Party of Arkansas, joined the press conference. He cited the Equal Access Act, signed by President Ronald Reagan, which protects students' right to organize by political affiliation without discrimination.
“That means if a Club America chapter is allowed in every high school and college across our state, a Young Democrats chapter will be as well," he said. "To those students that are listening, if your high school or college refuses to let you start a club at your school, the Democratic Party of Arkansas has your back. Our lawyers will have something to say about that.”
