U.S. President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with moderator Charlie Kirk after a discussion at the Generation Next forum in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Charlie Kirk, a firebrand conservative activist and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, is preparing to unveil a nonprofit that will allow his organization to campaign against Democrats during the 2020 election season.
CNBC discovered Kirk’s new organization, called Turning Point Action, after reviewing an embedded donor link that shows the soon-to-be-finalized group targeting Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
“Far-left radical Ilhan Omar doesn’t even want the Department of Homeland Security to receive ‘1 DOLLAR’ to enforce immigration laws and stop terrorists from infiltrating our open border,” the page reads. It adds: “Let’s show her how much we’re willing to donate to fight to REMOVE HER from office.”
The page concludes with a notice that Turning Point Action is a 501(c)(4) entity, which by law can campaign either for or against candidates running for office.
Kirk has criticized Omar previously, and in one tweet called her anti-Semitic, but he had not said she should be voted out of office.
The group’s official launch is expected June 1, according to a Turning Point Action representative who explained that the Omar link was the first of many beta phases to see what resonates with potential supporters. The representative also acknowledged that Kirk’s new entity will allow him and his allies to be more active in directly taking on candidates they oppose. The spokesperson declined to name the other Democrats they’ll be targeting, or the types of media formats they intend to use.
Turning Point Action appears to have a Twitter account from 2015 but nothing has been posted on the site and only has 13 followers, including Kirk himself.
In 2012, Kirk founded Turning Point USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit grassroots organization that encourages conservative college students to rally for causes such as free market policies. The Internal Revenue Service prohibits 501(c)(3)s to participate, either directly or indirectly, in political campaigns.
Many of the themes expressed by Turning Point USA, either through its digital content or at its events, will be part of Turning Point Action’s messaging in 2020, the spokesman added. In the past, Kirk has advocated for a border wall and attacked political correctness on college campuses. He’s been one of Trump’s most vocal advocates and the commander in chief has noticed as he praised him at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.
“He has done an incredible job, thank you very much Charlie,” Trump said at the time.
Based on the strong fundraising apparatus of Turning Point USA, its new sister organization will likely not have any issues raising cash for a 2020 operation.
According to Turning Point USA’s most recent tax filing, the group raised just more than $8 million in the fiscal year ended in June 2017, which was almost double from the prior cycle.
While the group does not disclose its donors, a report by the International Business Times shows that Republican megadonors or their affiliated foundations have previously bankrolled Turning Points USA, including Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and conservative financier Foster Friess.
