Chloe Moes and Marissa Aten drove more than 500 miles to see conservative commentators Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles live at the University of Idaho. “I just listen to Michael Knowles. I love watching his stuff,” Moes said. “I’m really interested in just going to see different conversations.”
Moes, 20, drove from California and Aten, 23, from Nevada to Idaho’s flagship university, the last stop on the Turning Point USA spring tour. Despite the distance, the two friends didn’t want to miss it.
Aten said she consumes a lot of content produced by Turning Point USA and that its messaging helped her articulate her positions in conversations, especially with people she disagrees with. “I’ve had conversations that were a lot of the frequent topics of Turning Point’s and learning different things to say and how to answer those questions better to try to change their minds on topics like abortion or immigration,” she said.
Moes said she used Turning Point USA’s videos as an educational resource while in college, helping her form arguments that aligned with her views on abortion. “This is the way to reach younger minds, especially younger, well-influenced minds,” she said.
Aten and Moes were two of hundreds of mostly young people in line for the event. As Turning Point USA, often abbreviated TPUSA, works to find its footing after the murder of its founder Charlie Kirk, the “This is the Turning Point Tour” has had mixed reactions. Some prior stops featured high-profile Trump administration figures and candidates; the Idaho rally instead spotlighted Walsh and Knowles, podcasters and pundits with The Daily Wire.
Turnout at other tour events was sometimes sparse. For example, a University of Georgia event on April 14th drew low-energy crowds and saw Erika Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk’s widow, cancel her appearance citing security concerns. An April 30 event at Iowa State University, where Erika Kirk was slated to appear with Vice President JD Vance, was canceled. Still, the University of Idaho stop drew notable enthusiasm.
Attendees began lining up hours before the event outside the Idaho Central Credit Union Arena. Inside, TPUSA-affiliated volunteers handed out free hats and mini American flags, helped with voter registration, and staffed merchandise tables. Although the arena typically seats more than 4,000, the event’s seating was heavily restricted. A University of Idaho employee who was not authorized to speak publicly said TPUSA requested three reductions in capacity: initially 3,000, then a little over 1,000, and finally 869 seats. Turning Point USA did not respond to NPR’s question about why it reduced capacity. As a result, many people were turned away.
“I’m very sorry for the over 1,000 people who did not make it in the room tonight, but who wanted to be here,” Knowles said as he took the stage.
Walsh and Knowles briefly discussed Turning Point’s mission and carrying on Kirk’s memory, encouraging young people to get involved politically. Unlike some earlier tour stops, they spent most of the two-hour event taking questions from the crowd. TPUSA does not require questioners to give names to speak at the microphone.
Two questions turned into debate-style exchanges. One attendee challenged the accuracy and purpose of a graph Walsh had cited in a YouTube video claiming a growing number of mass shooters in America are transgender. Another asked why the two conservatives continued to defend the Department of Justice and former President Trump over perceived mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Those back-and-forths echoed the campus debating that helped make Charlie Kirk a known figure.
When not debating, Walsh and Knowles answered questions about the Republican Party’s future. A 17-year-old attendee said the “right-wing civil war is real” and suggested the party was moving toward an “America First” direction; the crowd applauded. “I think among my generation, we’re sick of all foreign influences in our country, whether it be China, Mexico or Israel or any other nation,” he said. Knowles responded that Gen Z opinions are reshaping GOP discourse: “It’s actually very encouraging that especially young people are shaking up the way that the GOP talks about issues, whether we’re talking about foreign policy or whether we’re talking about economic policy.”
Another audience member asked whether the MAGA movement is dying and what Republicans will stand for when Trump is out of office. Walsh pushed back slightly, saying MAGA isn’t dead but that there may not be a distinct MAGA movement within a post-Trump GOP. “What’s going to define it for the next ten years?” he asked. “Now’s the perfect time to get in that fight and get into the conversation about what the next ten years of the Republican Party’s going to look like.”
The Idaho stop, set against the rural college town’s rolling hills and wheat fields, offered an energetic, debate-driven close to the tour. Walsh and Knowles’ engagement with the crowd—answering questions, debating attendees, and encouraging political involvement—evoked the campus activism and contentious exchanges that helped build Turning Point’s profile.