One year after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the organisation he co-founded, Turning Point USA, has expanded its campus presence significantly. Yet the growth comes alongside falling approval ratings for President Donald Trump among young voters and signs of internal division within the movement.

Kirk was fatally shot on September 10, 2025, while speaking to students at Utah Valley University in Utah. He was 31 years old. The killing was captured on video and prompted the Trump administration to pursue a crackdown on what it described as "domestic terrorist organisations," including the antifascist movement known as Antifa.

Turning Point USA says it now has more than 3,500 high school chapters, a 180 percent increase since Kirk's death, and more than 1,500 college chapters, a rise of over 60 percent. The organisation describes the 2025–2026 school year as a period of "unprecedented expansion," with over one million students involved across its network.

The surge in membership was felt almost immediately after the shooting. Jacob York, a 21-year-old student at Olivet Nazarene University south of Chicago, said he decided to start a chapter on his campus the night Kirk was killed. "I think I submitted the request to start a chapter six times," York recalled. "There were so many requests that it kept saying, 'Oops, try again later.'"

Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, who has since taken over as Turning Point's chief executive, addressed the momentum in her first public remarks after his death. "If you thought that my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea," she said. "You have no idea what you've just unleashed across this entire country, and this world."

Despite the numerical growth, some young conservatives describe a movement that has yet to fully coalesce around a new leader and is grappling with the same policy divisions straining the Republican Party more broadly.

Dino Fantegrossi, 23, led his Turning Point chapter at the University of Arkansas for more than two years before breaking with the organisation last spring. He founded a new group called Young American Revival, which he said aims to be "a positive vehicle for students to take out their frustrations in a manner that actually brings about change within our state."

"One of the big problems that has happened since Charlie's death is that I think a lot of the youth have kind of felt lost," Fantegrossi said. "They're not really sure how to channel their frustrations, and that oftentimes — when it's not put in check or pointed in a positive direction — can manifest itself in some very nasty ways."

Fantegrossi also pointed to Kirk's unique connection with young people as something that has not been replaced. "Charlie Kirk got it. He spent all of his time on college campuses talking to people my age, whether he agreed or disagreed with them," he said. "There's no one else that was quite at that level of plugged in."

Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet acknowledged the organisation faces "a confluence of challenges" but said it "is still growing in nearly every conceivable way," calling the expansion "a testament to Charlie's enduring legacy." He added: "In many ways the challenges our students and chapters face have never been more obvious or pronounced, but so too are the opportunities."

The organisational growth comes as Republican support among young men has declined. Only 32 percent of men aged 18 to 29 approved of Trump's performance in August, down from 43 percent in February 2025, according to polling by Reuters and Ipsos. That follows gains made during the 2024 election, when Trump won 46 percent of young men's votes, a seven-point increase from 2020, according to Pew Research Center data.

Economic pressures are among the leading concerns for young voters. A Harvard Youth Poll conducted in March and April found that half of Americans aged 18 to 29 said inflation had affected them "a lot," while 45 percent said they were struggling to make ends meet or had little financial security. According to Moody's Analytics, the war in Iran has added an average of $750 in household expenses.

Divisions over the Iran conflict have also surfaced within Turning Point itself. A poll by YouGov and The Economist found that only 16 percent of young people considered US military action in Iran to have been the right decision.

Turning Point USA will hold a memorial at Utah Valley University on Thursday, one year after Kirk was shot on campus. The organisation will also mark the anniversary at the Republican Party's first-ever midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, ahead of the November 3 congressional midterm elections.