What prominent Christian nationalist figures have spoken at Turning Point USA events?
Executive summary
Turning Point USA (TPUSA) has featured multiple figures tied to Christian nationalist ideas at its events, most centrally founder Charlie Kirk and a network of pastors and activists promoted through TPUSA Faith; other speakers with clear ties to Christian nationalist movements who have appeared at TPUSA-affiliated gatherings include Jack Hibbs, Sean Feucht and Micah Beckwith, while prominent conservative politicians at AmericaFest have also voiced "Christian nation" rhetoric on TPUSA stages [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. Reporting shows TPUSA’s events and offshoots increasingly mix political programming with explicitly religious messaging, even as the organization’s core public mission is framed as student organizing rather than an exclusively Christian project [6] [2].
1. Charlie Kirk — the movement’s public face and Christian-nationalist signal
Charlie Kirk, TPUSA’s founder, is the clearest example: scholars and critics document how Kirk blended political organizing with Christian storytelling at events branded as "Freedom Night/Freedom Square" and through Turning Point Faith, using rhetoric—such as calls to "reclaim the country for Christ"—that analysts say bears Christian nationalist resemblances [1] [2] [3]. Academic and watchdog reporting traces Kirk’s repeated public preaching to churches and faith-focused venues as part of TPUSA’s pivot toward mobilizing pastors and congregations [2] [3].
2. Pastors and prophetic activists appearing through TPUSA Faith
TPUSA has explicitly cultivated a pastor network and hosted pastors-summit style programming that has featured figures associated with Christian nationalist activism: Jack Hibbs, a megachurch pastor who has defended January 6 sympathizers and hosted Kirk, is cited as part of that ecosystem [2], and Sean Feucht—known for prayer rallies and for moving faith-based activism into political spaces—has been tied to TPUSA-affiliated programming and the broader "Kingdom to the Capitol" style efforts [3]. Those appearances are part of a pattern in which TPUSA’s faith arm expanded its church network dramatically and rolled out curricula and touring programs aimed at churches [6].
3. Emerging Christian nationalist organizers spotlighted at TPUSA events
Figures tied to contemporary Christian nationalist media and movements—such as Micah Beckwith—have been visible in the post-Kirk moment, delivering religious framing at memorials and TPUSA-adjacent platforms and helping stitch together political and theological messaging that memorialized Kirk and reinforced Christian-national frames [4]. Word&Way and Religion News coverage describe TPUSA’s "Pastors Summit" and faith programming as repeating conspiratorial and culture-war rhetoric to pastors, signaling the kind of personnel TPUSA elevates [7] [6].
4. Conservative politicians on TPUSA stages who invoke Christian-national language
Major conservative politicians and surrogates who have headlined AmericaFest and similar TPUSA events—Vice President J.D. Vance and other GOP figures—have used language asserting America’s Christian identity; Vance explicitly told a TPUSA audience that the U.S. "always will be a Christian nation" at AmericaFest [5], and high-profile politicians regularly close or appear on TPUSA stages [8] [9] [10]. While not all such politicians are labeled by sources as "Christian nationalists," their speeches at TPUSA have sometimes reinforced Christian-majoritarian themes.
5. Institutional context, controversies and competing claims
TPUSA itself is described in some reporting as not explicitly a Christian organization even as it grows a faith arm and hosts religiously framed events—an important distinction that TPUSA emphasizes while critics and watchdogs like the ADL document a shift toward Christian nationalist messaging and note that extremists have at times found platforms at TPUSA gatherings [6] [11]. Sources thus present competing frames: TPUSA leaders portray outreach to pastors as outreach for civic engagement, while scholars and civil-society analysts interpret the same activities as part of a Christian nationalist project [7] [11].
6. Limits of the record and what remains uncertain
Public reporting identifies multiple prominent Christian nationalist figures who have spoken in TPUSA venues or at TPUSA Faith events, but available sources do not provide a comprehensive roster of every speaker across years and programs; therefore this account names documented examples and situates them within TPUSA’s broader shift toward faith-based organizing rather than claiming the list is exhaustive [6] [2].