Casper College Students Inspired By Charlie Kirk To Revive Turning Point Chapter

CASPER — A month ago, Casper’s Mya Hager went to the Turning Point USA website and clicked on the button to join a chapter or form one.

The former Kelly Walsh High School student spent her senior high school year taking classes at Casper College, and now as a freshman is on her way to becoming a political science major.

“I was struggling in a lot of my classes with the material that was being taught, and I felt there were a lot of things baked into the textbook that weren’t necessarily the only perspective,” she said. “I just felt really conflicted.

"I didn’t really have a voice in my classes to talk about what I felt was incorrect or (that) there was a different perspective.”

So, she looked to Turning Point USA.

Shortly thereafter, she learned that the college had a Turning Point chapter that disbanded a few years ago. Hager started talking with friends about restarting the conservative campus-based group this year. 

After speaking with a regional representative of the nonprofit and getting organized, they intended to launch with their first meeting Sept. 11.

“Of course, we didn’t realize there was going to be this tragedy with Charlie Kirk,” Hager said.

Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10, and the Casper College students canceled the meeting not knowing for sure what the next step would or should be.

Hager calls Kirk’s assassination “really shocking and devastating” for herself and friends Clarabelle Ramsey, Henry Powell and Abigail Davis, who had agreed to help relaunch the chapter.

In the relaunch, Ramsey would serve as president, Hager as vice president, Powell as secretary and Davis as treasurer.

Prayer Meeting

“When we all heard the news we thought, 'OK, we need to have a prayer meeting,'” she said. “And after he passed, we really didn’t know what the best steps were or how to move forward or what that should even look like. But we knew what we were doing was just so important and it brought a new gravity to our mission.”

That mission officially got started earlier this week at an open meeting for students and the community. The 137 people who showed up at the College Heights Baptist Church to honor Kirk and check out the group exceeded expectations.

“We really expected it not to be a huge turnout,” Hager said. She said the amount of support and people who have reached out to ask how they can help has been “amazing.”

Tuesday’s meeting generated 40 to 45 students interested in joining the chapter. The chapter is open to Casper College students as well as high school students who are attending the college as part of their curriculum.

On Wednesday, the new TPUSA chapter hosted a vigil at Washington Park in Casper honoring Kirk’s memory and passing and several people attended, Hager said.

Moving forward, the group has plans for the semester, but Hager said there remains questions as the parent organization sorts itself out. They are staying in touch with Turning Point USA’s field representative for the region and getting help from the University of Wyoming’s TPUSA chapter as well.

“Obviously with the Turning Point organization there is a lot of things happening within the organization to figure out how they are going to proceed,” she said.

Events For Semester

The Casper group administrative team plans to meet once a month and has already planned events for the semester such as a fundraiser, political trivia night, and movie screenings. Some events will be just for members, others for the community as well.

“In November, we are looking to get some speakers to come in such as Chuck Gray or Bob Ide,” she said.

Gray is Wyoming’s secretary of state, and Ide is the state senator who represents the 29th District on Casper’s south side.

In the winter semester, they want to hear more from members as the chapter evolves and learn what ideas they have for the group and its mission, which Hager defines as “having conversations about big ideas.”

“We want to get people interested in American values and conservative values,” she said. 

The group intends to work on the “political polarization” issues and do what Kirk did, reach across the political divide. She said the new group has already contacted the Democratic club on campus and is looking at doing events with them that are “productive and respectful” and expose people to new ideas.

The group will focus on educational events to help conservatives develop their own values and also have conversations with those who don’t agree.

“Ultimately the best arguments win out when you are willing to have those sorts of conversations,” Hager said.

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.