Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), responded to Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel when she criticized TPUSA for backing Harmeet Dhillon in her campaign to challenge McDaniel.
McDaniel, who has been the RNC chairwoman since 2017, is facing a challenge for her reelection from Dhillon, the RNC national committeewoman who hails from California and is an election-integrity lawyer who has represented former President Donald Trump.
Kirk is one of the conservative opponents of McDaniel who has openly shared his belief that the GOP is now ready for new leadership. Dhillon was heavily promoted during the TPUSA's AmericaFest event that took place on the weekend. She overwhelmingly beat McDaniel in an informal poll of AmericaFest attendees, finishing with 58 percent of the vote as opposed to McDaniel's 2 percent.
This week, McDaniel talked to Fox News' Brian Kilmeade about her challenge from Dhillon and criticized the TPUSA's inability to register a large number of new voters during the recent midterm election.
As Fox News reported:
“McDaniel says Dhillion [sic] is a good attorney but never ran a state party or campaign. McDaniel took issue with Turning Point USA for pushing Dhillion [sic]. McDaniel said Turning Point does great conferences but asked, how many young voters did they register and how many youth voters did they turn out this cycle? McDaniel feels if you are going to hold the RNC accountable, start looking at these outside organizations that don’t disclose their finances.”
Responding to McDaniel's remarks, Kirk took to Twitter to call attention to the TPUSA's political activism during the last election cycle. “Ronna, thanks for asking. Turning Point logged more than 500k volunteer hours this election cycle. TPAction directly contacted and engaged over 5 million voters,” Kirk tweeted. “We hosted well over 100 major door knocking events and rallies in target states and districts.”
Kirk said that TPUSA recruited “over 2,000 new precinct leaders” and “registered tens of thousands of new voters.”
Kirk also emphasized the rallies TPUSA organized with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) in support of GOP candidates across the country.
“We also…Reached tens of millions of listeners in podcast, radio, and streaming on The Charlie Kirk Show. Messaged to Hispanic voters in South Florida, Phoenix, and Tucson,” Kirk tweeted. “Supported Mike Lee and Andy Biggs against Romney-backed ‘Independent’ plants.”
Kirk declared that TPUSA was able to accomplish this feat using “only $500,000” and “a few million via our 501c4.”
Kirk also criticized McDaniel for revelations that the RNC lavishly invested millions of dollars during her administration, including more than $1 million in luxury travel and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of “floral arrangements.”
“How many hundreds of millions did the RNC spend?” Kirk tweeted. “Instead of attacking the only youth org in the country actually doing something, maybe you should be thankful we are doing the work.
“This is exactly why you should not [sic] longer be chair—this is why 98% of our attendees want you fired. If I had a 98% disapproval rating I would resign,” Kirk tweeted. “Instead of attacking us, you should be sending us $700,000 in flowers thanking us.”
The 168 RNC voting members will choose the next chairperson on January 27.
