Charlie Kirk on Building a Voter Turnout Machine That Helped Reelect President Trump in 2024

the coolest part of what I get to do is be around just the most awesome people on the planet right like just sitting back and watching Elon Musk and president Trump talk about consequential political issues like what what am I doing here right like I didn't go to college I'm a kid from Chicago it really goes to show that this country still has meritocracy at its core and I think that is a testament to why this country is so great that if you prove yourself if you have the right work ethic if you have a little a grit and resolve you can end up around the the kings of today Charlie Kirk founder of tpusa mude you've built an actually enormous thing congratulations seriously amazing thank you Ben great to see you and thanks for being here and yeah it's been kind of a wild Journey you're one of the few people I could say you were at the foundational level oh yeah I mean I remember 18-year-old Charlie Kirk going around the David horwood Freedom Center at the breakers trying to meet donors and I remember saying to every one of those donors this guy's going to be ahead of the RNC and then you just basically built your own RNC yeah you know we kind of looked at the RNC and we said maybe we could do something you know in our own likeness and image but no I mean glory be to God it's it's amazing and this election cycle was uh a big test for us and uh we we were thrilled with the result I have to say it's actually incredible so there there was a tape of you from election night when it was announced that President Trump had won and you got really emotional and I was moved by it because I know how much work you've put in over the last 10 years just to just to get to this point and to be so influential in this election and listen I mean you were handed in enormous responsibility and that's a super hard thing I mean they basically said okay why don't you just handle voter turnout like what in the world so explain to me how you even build that sort of machine that leads to president Trump being reelected well it was a couple things um we we had president Trump's back throughout the primary and the whole process there weren't a lot of us that were kind of building this kind of machinery and it turned out once we got to the general election we must remember that the odds did not look great for his general election chances I mean from the law fair to just kind of the the the party was not completely yet behind him and so we volunteered we're like hey you know we know how to do this on college campuses we want to do some voter turnout stuff and because of an FC ruling that happened this last spring you're allowed to coordinate with presidential campaigns it was an election ruling um actually Mark Elias sued the FBC and W and he thought it would help the Democrats and so we started working with a great campaign team Susie WS James Blair and we said hey especially in Arizona Wisconsin and Pennsylvania some of these states who really have Grassroots infrastructure we believe that we can help the campaign and fill the gaps in and hire bodies and so we went out on a hiring speed we hired 1,500 full-time people in the key Battleground States massive like an enormous sum and our hypothesis was this was that we do not have to take the electorate as is meaning we can make the electorate more in a Maga image the traditional Republican Orthodoxy was that you have to win Swing Swing voters and they're the most important voters and that's probably true in lower turnout elections but in high turnout election you can actually change the elector to be a little more masculine a little more rural a little more gun owning little more muscular class a little more Maga so we said how do we turn Trump's supporters into voters because it's one thing to say that I like Donald Trump I like the vibe you know he's great I watch him on Tik Tok and then turn him into a voter that's where we came in so we the second part of our hypothesis is that we need to dominate early voting month which is that we as Republicans are foolish to not engage in those 30 days of early voting and act as if everyone should just show up on one day and so we and Elon and a couple others on the outside built this force that was really underestimated and scoffed at and smeared and honestly slandered by the media oh Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk kind of doing this voter turnout operation it turns out that uh what we did worked and it actually the credit really goes to president Trump because it was the easiest get out the vote operation ever because we were talking to people that already liked him that knew him and his name ID had full saturation we just needed to turn that support from yes I like him to a ballot in a box and we did that hundreds of thousands of times over a 30-day period in the key Battleground States and not not to get too much ahead of ourselves because this is an enormous Victory but looking forward for years these were as you say many of these are low propensity voters who love president Trump who's unique political figure the most unique political figure of our lifetime a historic political figure probably the most historic American political figure of the last century you know that given that fact are these people that can come out again are these people that you can reach again duplicate again for another C say JD van that's the question and the answer is even if we only do some of it and then do better with High propensity voters of which Donald Trump was actually doing worse with then we could still have electoral success so let's take J Vance for example who a dear friend I think he would be a phenomenal president is that he can definitely do better with higher propensity voters more college educated people that might not have like Donald Trump's approach or tone or whatever excuse they would give and even if we get some of those low propensity voters to engage in the process you have the best of all worlds and so what we have proven though is an Obama style get out the vote turnout machine can be built on the right and that was always the question is we as the right like can we win celebrity culture can we do the thing where we change the electorate and it turns out yes we can and that again we were just we were just kind of benefiting from the draft of the President right meaning that he had such a life force behind him and so many people knew him and wanted to support him and it was so Illuminating because we hosted the president with Bobby Kennedy back in August when that endorsement happened and it was an amazing event Bobby gave an amazing speech there it was it was terrific and we were honor to be part of it and we we asked the campaign we said hey can we do voter registration because you know we don't want to step to said yeah of course you can so so 18,000 people show up we registered 900 firsttime voters 900 out of 18,000 were Trump supporters willing to stand in line in the Arizona heat for 3 hours and they weren't registered to vote and so all of a sudden we said guys not everyone who buys a Maga hat is even registering to vote and this is the Forgotten country these are people that make the country work the plumbers electricians the welders the Carpenters the police officers the firefighters and so our theory of the case worked every everyone doubted us and the secondary Part of That Was Then dominate on social media this is where the Trump campaign deserves enormous credit from putting Donald Trump on Joe Rogan on theovon on these over-the-top type podcast situations that communicated the people that were lower propensity and so then by the time we knocked on the door said hey we need to collect your ballot yeah I just saw president Trump on theovon I just saw him on Rogan he's amazing so we are going to the people that aren't watching CNN they're not watching the traditional news channels and media and we were able to then in Arizona Chase over 200,000 ballots Donald Trump won by 97,000 votes in Wisconsin you know Chase 60,000 ballots of low propensity voters won by 30,000 votes and so we're not taking credit for anything but we definitely help played a role uh you played an enormous role and and I want to ask you sort of how you got to this point so for people who don't know the story I mean I was I was here watching from the outside at a distance for a lot of the story but for people who don't know sort of the Charlie Kirk Turning Point USA story why don't you explain where this came from because it is an amazing story yeah it's an only an America story uh and I'm an entrepreneur at heart you know that you know you built you done a great job building the daily wire and uh I've watch watch from afar on that and kind of see this become a beast uh and on the tur Point USA side I always felt like we could do culture better and we could definitely do the college campus High School Outreach kind of space better that it needs some disruption and honestly I hated losing and I saw us losing and I know you had a similar kind of drive to the left and that we weren't playing on their cultural terms and that we were constantly in Retreat and so the idea was that can we bring entrepreneurial disruptive principles to a nonprofit space and you know create more chapters create more High School experiences create events like this can we do the Grassroots thing better and again I I have to give credit to president Trump I know I sound like I'm repeating myself but he kind of created an environment where politics and culture were almost indecipherable right and you know the old expression Andrew bper you know it you know a phenomenal Legend mentor of yours and I followed you know uh at bart.com after him and he was just amazing politics flows Downstream for culture now it's closer like politics and culture almost distinguish exactly right it's a merger they're kind of one and the same that you don't get politics without culture culture without politics and so we at turning point would say look at ourselves as a cultural transformation machine from our influencer Network for some of the voices that we've helped Elevate and lift up from some of the things that we've done on college campuses and high school campuses and it's just been 12 years of grinding and a lot of people that thought we weren't going to last or that they could try to take us out and the team deserves just such enormous credit um and there's been so many different inflection points and people that have poured into us and donors that believed in us and you know here we are today thanks to the you know glory and grace of God with 400,000 donors and hundreds thousands of students and this event we have 20,000 people coming they're thrilled to hear from you by the way uh and the president keynoting this on Sunday uh which we consider to be you know a great Testament to the work and what we've done and we can kind of look at our at the landscape now and we can say we are as an organization you know one of the uh more important organizations on the right and something where the left never took us seriously and I think that's what really it's an understatement I mean you may be the most important organization on the right at this point and and when you look at at also sort of what your life is like now could you have imagined that that's what your life was going to look like when you were 18 I mean first of all I don't think anyone could have imagined Trump himself right I mean he just came in literally from nowhere wrecking ball destroys everything in his wake and and you on a daily basis get to interact with President Trump you get to interact with Elon mus it's a pretty cool life I mean it's awesome man and it's just I have to just say thank you God for putting us in this situation and you kind of know what it's like to be in the public eye obviously you do and and that's fine that comes with uh a different lot of death threats a lot of derailments the coolest part of what I get to do is be around just the most awesome people on the planet right like just sitting back and watching Elon Musk and president Trump talk about consequential political issues like what what am I doing here right like I didn't go to college I'm a kid from Chicago I'm 31 years old uh and it really goes to show that this country still have has meritocracy at its core I I didn't go to a great school obviously I wasn't born to like a very prestigious family did a couple things took a couple risks turned out and I think that is a testament to why this country is so great that if you prove yourself if you have the right work ethic if you have a little bit of grit and resolve you can end up you know around the the kings of today and I think that's really cool so I have to pinch myself all the time I never could have imagined it I mean I remember the first time I met president Trump I was like my life is set I met a president right I'm all good and you know now we are you know in 2024 going into 2025 um you know I have a great relationship with the president um he asked me my opinion on certain things here or there uh and again he believed in us as an organization and me when others did not and that also speaks to him he's fiercely loyal we've had his back and he's had our back and he's always believed in us and and now you know everything here is largely Testament to to how he's poured into us so looking at the next couple of years at least before the midterms what are sort of the big things on your agenda item what do you think the big things should be on the GOP agenda item what are the things that are also doable because obviously when it comes to politics I think there's a tendency sometimes to say well if we just have sort of a Nichi and will we can Ram through anything we want but as we can see from even this week it's a pretty complicated process there a lot of sausage making that goes on so what what one of the things that that as conservatives we should all be looking forward to it's not all Will To Power right Thus Spoke Zahra is a is a dangerous political uh manual to say the least um I I will say that as far as Turning Point action we have a very simple ask on the political side which is our goal and our hope is that we want the Republican party to be as conservative as its voters so we think it's unhealthy if are senators from Deep Red states that act as if they are Metropolitan rockerfeller Republicans and this the first kind of test of this is can Donald Trump get his cabinet right absent any like bombshell like Earth chattering stuff does an incoming president who won a popular vote in electoral vote Landslide and won some of these states by 20 or 30 points can he earn the trust of senators that keep on going back to the well every six years from their Republican voters saying you know keep on giving me political power we have Turning Point action think we're we're uniquely positioned to help make that case because we are not born out of the Republican Party we're an outside group we're obviously loyal to the president and it's going to be a test of Camy Senators who might get a little wobbly when it comes to people like Tulsi gabard or Bobby Kennedy or Pete Heth can they say yes and confirm them we hope we think yes and we're seeing good directional energy there and cash Patel I would definitely add to that list so we want to just try to make the Republican Party get into alignment with its voters very simple and easy ask and then beyond that uh we want to try to change the philosophy of the Republican Party be party to win and win longterm invest in long-term infrastructure invest on it on the ground and then accelerate this kind of cultural transformation that we've seen I think we're entering a golden era of this country I think we're going to see amazing economic growth I think we're going to finally have our allies back in many different ways I think we're going to have a secure Southern border I think we're going to deregulate the economy I think we're going to be able to have a mass deportation force and think we're going to see all these promises made and Promises Kept and my hope is that we can kind of make the Democrat Party a minoritarian party for a generation the same way FDR made the Republican Party a minority party for like 15 to 20 years and it's really on us like it's for us to screw up to be honest and for us to mess up and so and then from there uh we have to do something dramatic with education that's the core of everything we do at Turning Point USA and one of the things that's really fascinating about President Trump as a political figure is just how pragmatist he is I mean I've spent some time with him youve spent way more time with him and the thing that when people ask me about President Trump I I always say is that his only metric is winning like when when you're talking about meritocracy when you're talking about the thing that he actually cares about it's just winning yes and so that means that if a policy is tried and it doesn't work he is not going to do that policy anymore and it also means that he actually is going to be able to judge by results and so all these people who are out there suggesting he's going to be an extremist or that he's going to pursue crazy policy he's going to tear off everybody 75% it's like that's not what he's going to do he's going to do the things that win for the country which is why we have such an opportunity going forward yeah and I I will say this that out of the gate he's going to do what he campaigned on and I was talking to a reporter recently he said well do you really think that President Trump's going to do Mass deportations like well the American people knew was going to do it so yes I mean it's not that surprising like yes he's going to keep men out of female sports like he's going to drill baby drill he's going to have Israel's back like he's going to keep Iran and check like he's going to do his best to try to end the Russian Ukrainian conflict these are things he campaigned on transparently and I it's Unique because in politics like for example when KL Harris said oh I'm for frack and we all knew she was a liar and look there's a lot of complaints people throw at president Trump the one that I want to make sure we're clear is that he he tells like the blunt truth so directly that it like almost makes you disoriented where he's like I'm sick of I'm sick of losing we're going to win again we're not going to allow men in female locker rooms and I'm going to defund every single school that does that he means that when he says that like we're not going to put up with that anymore and as far as like the extremist and the Unshackled thing I just kind of think it's laughable because everything he's talking about and the cabinet he's putting together is directly symmetrical and mirroring what he campaigned on and it's not as if there's been like some surprise not he's like oh surprise actually amnesty for everybody and you know Green cards and so it was the most transparent campaign pledges and Promises 20 points he said the American people this is what you this is what you want this is what you're going to get and you're right he cares the most about the country succeeding and thriving and the first term he did a wonderful job and I think and I I'll make a final point I love your thoughts on this too Ben I actually think the four years of Exile was good for us I think us being out of power made us ask who who are we what do we want to do who are the best people to do this job and I think it was good for him I think it was good for me I think it was for everybody around him for us to really kind of say no we want this and we're a better version of our former self and that we're the second Administration will be much better than the first I I think that you're exactly right on that I also think that President Trump being out of power I think one of the things that it did is it meant that he is coming in with a Vengeance he's not a lame duck president he is somebody who's going to come in with a real agenda and it's going to be like he has a second first term I mean normally second term president the second term nothing happens right second term of George W bush for better ill nothing happened and when it came exactly when it comes to president Trump not only does an agenda he's treating this running on the ground Ju Just like that and I I think that that's a wonderful and unique thing I also think that because the Democrats have lost their minds and because they've swung so far to the left what that means is that what we are actually seeing is something that I've described as the Normie Revolution what we're seeing is this just it is now subversive to just be normal right I think one of the best examples of this was the bizarre attempt to paint JD Vans as a weirdo by Tim Walls who is legit a weirdo and and JD is one of the most normal people in the history of American Poli married has kids served in the military comes from a not particularly wealthy background made something like he is the American story embodied and somehow he was a weirdo who was having relations with c and meanwhile these people who actually would have relations with couches and try to actually marry their couches are saying that there's something weird about us and so what you're seeing is I think a surge of just can we go back to normal and Trump feels like normaly now yes it does and that's what's so unique is because we've been propaganda I believe that Trump is the abnormal and that like I don't know like transgender strippers in front of the White House is normal like everything's fine or like cocaine in the West Wing is fine and actually it's good and so and and that's what's so unique about the president Trump's agenda is so much what he's talking about is actually just a rebalancing to the center of gravity where we once were it's like okay a border like we're not going to send all this crazy money to people that hate us like we're going to have a social contract where our people come first we're going to have a you know a booming economy I don't think that's r I don't think it's revolutionary I think it's reasonable and I I will say this that the one issue where the Democrats really went all in on and they thought they could break the will of our movement and Matt Walsh deserves such credit for this I said this publicly and privately I sent out a tweet and I meant it sincerely is on the trans issue and I think that Matt Walsh was like one of the like quiet reasons that we won this election because him holding the line on the trans thing he started this like sea of Courage with myself included saying that this is insane record put up with this the most successful political advertisement that President Trump ran this campaign the most successful you know this was the illegal immigrant transgender surgery funded by taxpayers it was like so outrageous right like kamla bragging about how people literally didn't believe she had done that because it was so crazy and she had totally done it and and what I love is the Trump campaign brilliant from Susie Wilds they ran it like during NFL football right it's like we'll be right back two-minute warning and it's like wait what is this and then Charlemagne on his show The Breakfast Club comments on it they run another ad of his reaction to it the Trump campaign spent $75 million on that ad they did not spend a lot on ads that one ad they went all in on now what was it about that ad that animated people it was so outrageous that it fit this Vibe like oh she is as radical as people say and she's bragging about it it's not like it was like some like secret recording it's like she was out in the open being like I am going to use your taxpayer dollars to chop off the parts of illegal aliens in prison and and it just it was like and then the ad was like Donald Trump is for you KLA Harris is for they them and kind of played into that kind of pronoun police stuff and yeah president Trump was kind of a revolutionary back to normal I I think that's totally right and and one of the things that you're seeing even when he's talking about the candidates who are considered out of the box say RFK Jr one of the things that he said in a press conference this week listen I'm not getting rid of the polio vaccine I I think the dirty secret of this campaign is that Donald Trump ran as a moderate okay they they treat him as though he's an extremist he's actually a moderate on virtually every issue that you can name from we shut down the endry the answer the answer is no to should we trans the children the answer is no to should we lower taxes the answer is yes like these are all like 8020 issues and for some reason Democrats have decided to take the 20% it's insane and then that's such a smart point because the only thing like immoderate about Donald Trump was just like how the media portrayed him and like the Ries like whatever fine but like you think about you actually if you just like hey these are the 20 things that Donald Trump stands for okay like the only one that I think that might be quote unquote radical was like maybe what he wanted to do with immigration was a little bit like different than the status quo but like not that much different than what Bill Clinton would have said in 1996 also the answer was not anymore because here's the thing there a total reaction to what if we leave the Border wide open for three years I mean I know no checks right I mean you live down here I went down to the border and I actually looked at the border it's it's legitimately wide open there were no agents I mean there was a drone from the Mexican drug cartel flying on our side of the border and the border patrol agents were telling me they could not shoot it down without explicit permission from Alejandro mayorcas so yeah I mean the reaction to that from the people is going to be like maybe we should glue this thing shut that's not exactly a wild reaction yeah and so and then president Trump always said I ran he ran onc commmon sense and this is what's so important is that that as we lose our sensibilities of our Western culture which is judeo-christian in nature we don't actually have a bearing what common sense actually is is that who is to say that men in female locker rooms is wrong if you don't have a shared Western morality that is derived from the Bible like who's to say it's wrong that you shouldn't chop off kids you know body parts and so what Donald Trump was is he was this this this Unapologetic Force to bring us back to foundational Western morality which I don't think anyone really appreciate it right exactly right which is like okay we're going to have sovereignty we're going to have borders and when you look at a 35 35,000 foot view you're like this is actually the most sensible political agenda like ever and they're the radicals like they're the ones that are calling about like Banning fossil fuels and like getting rid of like we're going to cramp clamp down on like corporate priz scouching like insane stuff right whereas president Trump is running on stuff that is 9010 issues and did so in a cultural transformational way and then secondly and we could talk about this forever he was also the most masculine political figure in a hyper toxically feminine culture right so he was just like the the absolute opposite we were living under like you can't say that feelings first reason is dead and he was just like nope we're going to be Unapologetic and if if you had a line chart and zero was sort of gender neutrality and so on the far left you had Tim Walls and Doug mhof on the far right you have Donald Trump that's right that's exactly right and so it's just like that is it's hard for people to articulate that but that is kind of just something that people sense and from Donald Trump's like red tie to his Alpha posture you know just like that's a guy that I want representing me not you know whatever walls is yeah exactly well speaking of these gender issues you guys at TPA you're working with us we working with you to release this brand new documentary identity crisis which is all about the transitioner movement we're really excited about this is going to be released on January 10th for free on X for a couple of days and it goes to daily wire plus exclusively which we're also very excited about tell me about the the documentary yeah this we've been working on this for a while and we're so honored to be partnering with you guys on this it's perfect partnership look Matt wad what is a woman and in some ways this not like a sequel but this is a this is a good uh accompaniment to that general idea because this goes deep into the the severity and the graphic brutality and the medieval nature of what transitioning actually is and which is in some ways it is the result of if you can't answer what a woman is you're going to start chopping off 12-year-olds breast then we get into the movie in great detail on the parents that lose their kids through divorce settlements and medical kidnapping this is not just a one-off thing this is happening with great detail across the country and Matt Walsh will say at it best that the TN LGBT really is tyrannical it is it is that it is full totalitarian control of your speech of your children of your body and that's what's so interesting is that it cloaks itself on its surface the trans agenda as Live and Let Live this let me wear a dress and you be you and honest with my temperament I'm fine with like okay I guess like I don't I don't think it's right I think it's weird but like okay if you want to wear a dress in your living room I'm not going to have a public policy measure against that but it's never been about that that's always been okay instead it's like no allow me to propagandize your 13-year-old child and then put them under general anesthesia and chop off their breasts because it's good for them so we are going right at the heart of what I hope is going to lead to a consensus that we can ban this in every state in the country my like little pet one of my pet projects I got four or five of them is for this incoming Trump Administration to sign executive orders and launch a doj legal Blitz C in the every gend affirming Care Center in the country from lur children's in Chicago to Mayo to the Nashville one that that we need we need we need criminal investigation civil investigations Dr Ethan Heim at Houston's children is under Federal indictment for this I know that you covered it on your show this is the the the one of the moral Crimes of the century we're exposing it in this movie Identity Crisis people should check it out and hopefully we want this to eventually get to the audience White House staff and government officials to build a consensus 10 days before inauguration day that this can be a public policy agenda so that we can end this in this country once and for all but folks stay tuned for that on X that's going to be available exclusively on X on January 10th and then a few days later over at Daily wi plus Charlie I really want to thank you say congratulations very few people outside president and the vice president elect outside of that very few people in this country have had more to do with the success of Donald Trump's reelect effort and I think this may have turned around the entire country so you deserve enormous thanks enormous Kudos well done well thank you I'll throw it back to the Daily wire I love the daily wire you guys are doing great work and you guys really had the president's back when it mattered most during the summer and fall remember you texted me said I will climb through broken glass to do whatever it takes to get Trump elected and it really helped a lot mattered a lot and this is a victory for the American people and Glory to God we have four great years and maybe beyond that with JD Vance and more but um it is a reprieve from the terror that we're living under right now so again thank you so much congratulations look forward to the rest of this amazing event thanks man gender firment care is healthare and it can actually be Suicide Prevention care they're talking about hormonal therapy or sex reassignment surgery on children I thought fixing me externally would fix me internally of course I was wrong puberty blockers surgeries big money makers or hospitals Physicians evil to tell children happiness lies on the other side of double masectomy that's a five alarm fire it's Criminal [Music]