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Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will announce a statewide partnership with the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion on Wednesday alongside the organization’s CEO, Erika Kirk.
Kirk is the widow of Charlie Kirk, the activist who led the organization until he was shot and killed at a public debate at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
A news release from the governor’s office included few details about Wednesday’s announcement, but a release from Turning Point USA described it as a “statewide Club America partnership.” Club America is the group’s high school chapter-based program.
The announcement with Sanders marks the “next step forward” in Turning Point USA’s “mission to put chapters on every high school and college in America,” the group’s news release says.
The governor’s office on Monday did not respond to questions about whether chapters will be established in all of Arkansas’ public high schools or what role the state will play in the partnership.
Turning Point USA’s website states that the organization aims to “build the most organized, active and powerful conservative grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses across the country.”
The group, which was founded by Charlie Kirk, was originally focused on colleges and universities. In July, less than two months before Kirk was assassinated, Turning Point USA announced the launch of Club America, “a bold new high school chapter-based program designed to mobilize students who are ready to lead, speak up, and stand for the tried-and-true American values of freedom, free markets, and limited government that have made the country the envy of the world for generations.”
At least one other state has announced a schools-related partnership with the organization in recent months.
In December, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched an initiative to establish Club America chapters in every high school in the state, the Texas Tribune reported. Abbott announced in a news release at the time that “any school who stands in the way of a Club America program should be reported immediately to the (Texas Education Agency) where an investigation will be opened, and disciplinary action will be taken if necessary.”
Kirk’s death set off a political firestorm over free speech, political violence and cultural division in the U.S. Hundreds of people around the country faced disciplinary action and investigations for comments critical of Kirk after his killing, including several high profile incidents in Arkansas.
Felicia Branch, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Bowen School of Law, was suspended without pay last September for Facebook posts that UALR Chancellor Christina Drale described as celebrating Kirk’s death and justifying “political violence against individuals based on ideology.” Branch was officially fired in October.
Joy Gray, a branch chief for the Arkansas Health Department’s Tobacco Prevention and Cessation program, was also fired in September for remarks she made on Facebook, including that Kirk was “shot doing his evil in the public.”
