Turning Point USA spokesman visits campus after vote

After Monday night’s Texas State Student Senate vote to ban Turning Point USA from campus, the organization sent a spokesman to the university to speak with students about the vote.

Rob Smith with Turning Point USA visited campus on Wednesday to talk about the vote, accompanied by Texas State Turning Point USA Chapter President Stormi Rodriguez and other members of the chapter. Before speaking on campus, Smith spoke with the Daily Record via phone about the legislation.

Smith said that he wasn’t certain, but that to his knowledge Texas State was the first case of a student government vote to ban Turning Point USA.

“I think there’s been controversies before,” he said. “As far as I know this is the first time a student government has actually said, ‘Okay, we’re going to kick this group off campus.’”

The resolution stated that Turning Point USA promotes conservative student government candidates through “elaborate campaigning and often illegal funding of candidates which is in direct violation of Texas State Student Government’s Election Code” and that “Turning Point USA uses their placement on campus to harass, intimidate, threaten student and faculty as they see fit.”

Smith called those allegations untrue. 

“Number one, the illegal campaign activity – I really can’t comment on that. It has no basis in reality,” he said.

As for allegations of racism, homophobia or transphobia, Smith said, “These are shut-down words that the left has come up with to shut down speech that they don’t agree with,” he said.

Smith added that hearing people refer to Turning Point USA Communications Director Candace Owens, who is a Black woman, as a white supremacist, “It makes the term mean nothing because it’s so obvious it’s not true.”

Smith said that he planned to talk with Texas State students about Turning Point USA and its mission and ask them “if they think it’s right to shut down student groups that may have ideas different from what they think.”

He also said he feels the Senate vote Monday night will only strengthen Turning Point USA.

“The vote against Turning Point USA is basically a vote against free speech on campus,” he said. “... What I think it’s going to do is it’s going to embolden our student leaders and tour chapters all across the country. … Their voices and their points of view deserve to be heard just as much as their liberal student counterparts.”

Smith’s comments echo those made by Hernandez during Monday night’s Student Government meeting. During her time at the podium, which was interrupted by shouts of expletives and chants from the audience, Hernandez said that the Student Government’s attempts to silence conservative voices on campus have only strengthened Turning Point USA. 

Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, turned to Twitter to call for Texas State University’s defunding in accordance with President Donald Trump’s free speech executive order. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also tweeted support for the organization, writing, “The Texas Senate just passed a bill mandating free speech on college campuses (including conservative speech). I look forward to signing it into law. But it’s crazy we have to pass a law to uphold the First Amendment.”

Claudia Gasponi, author of the resolution barring Turning Point USA from Texas State, said last week that the organization’s “national tactics of intimidation, harassment and misinformation are a malice toward any student body and should not be protected on the Texas State University (campus). … Texas State shows itself to be a racist institution when they only rise to defend the misinformed and violent Alt-Right free speech, and never the free speech of marginalized students.”

Numerous students and a former lecturer from Texas State spoke about harassment from Turning Point USA during Monday night’s Student Government meeting. A 2017 article about the organization in The New Yorker – found at https://bit.ly/2C1Gkqs – alleges improper campaign activities and racist behavior by some of Turning Point USA’s former employees. 

Despite the Senate vote, university officials have said the Student Government does not have the authority to ban a student organization from campus. Organizations are only banned if they are facing disciplinary sanctions from the administration.