How has The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints been linked to Turning Point USA since 2012?
Executive summary
Since Turning Point USA (TPUSA) was founded in 2012, reporting shows a multi‑pronged, informal linking between the conservative activist group and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints (LDS): individual Latter‑day Saints have staffed and participated in TPUSA projects and events, TPUSA created an explicit “Faith” arm in 2021 that courts churchgoers, and local political campaigns have seen coordinated activism by TPUSA‑aligned operatives who are also Latter‑day Saints—while there is no clear evidence in the provided reporting of an official institutional endorsement by the LDS Church itself [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. TPUSA’s origin and its formal turn toward “faith” organizing
Turning Point USA was founded in 2012 as a campus conservative activist group, and reporting documents that its leadership formally added a faith‑focused arm in 2021—TPUSA Faith—explicitly designed to recruit pastors and mobilize churches into civic engagement, signaling a strategic shift to court religious communities nationwide [1] [2] [6].
2. Individual Latter‑day Saints joining TPUSA ranks and media projects
Journalism indicates substantial individual participation by Latter‑day Saints in TPUSA initiatives: a notable share of staff on “The Charlie Kirk Show” are Latter‑day Saints, and local Mormon conservatives have been visible in TPUSA events and memorial gatherings where the rhetoric resonated with church members in Utah [3] [4]. Those sources portray membership overlap as driven by shared political priorities rather than theological convergence [3] [2].
3. Shared social goals despite doctrinal differences
Reporting from The Salt Lake Tribune and religion outlets emphasizes that Latter‑day Saints and evangelical TPUSA activists pursue overlapping social objectives—opposition to “woke” policies, emphases on traditional social mores and civic mobilization—even while acknowledging “very clear doctrinal differences” between the faiths; some LDS participants and leaders within TPUSA view that policy alignment as sufficient grounds for cooperation [3] [2].
4. Local political campaigns and coordinated activism
On the ground, the link has translated into coordinated political action in places with strong LDS populations: TPUSA activists (including leaders who identify as Latter‑day Saints) have organized get‑out‑the‑vote efforts and recall campaigns against local officials perceived as insufficiently conservative on issues like LGBTQ nondiscrimination, with reportage naming specific activists and videos used in those efforts [5]. That coverage connects individual TPUSA operatives and Mormon conservatives in tactical political fights without asserting an institutional directive from the LDS Church [5].
5. Organizational motives and implicit agendas
TPUSA Faith’s public messaging makes its agenda explicit—“unite the Church” around certain doctrines and “eliminate wokeism” from pulpits—revealing an intent to convert religious affiliation into electoral power, which helps explain why politically active Latter‑day Saints have gravitated toward the group; this is consistent with analysts’ observations that TPUSA seeks to mobilize Christian youth and church networks for civic ends [6] [7] [2]. Sources also highlight potential tensions: evangelicals and Latter‑day Saints differ theologically even while cooperating politically, and TPUSA’s faith outreach can reframe religious practice as a vehicle for partisan goals [3] [2].
6. Limits of the available reporting and unanswered questions
The sources document individual and organizational interactions but do not provide evidence that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints as an institution formally partnered with or endorsed Turning Point USA; the reporting instead describes overlaps in personnel, local organizing, and a purposeful outreach effort by TPUSA toward churches [3] [1] [6]. Without additional documents or statements from LDS institutional leadership in the provided reporting, the question of any formal, top‑down alliance remains unresolved in this dataset.