Andrew Kolvet - Turning Point USA: Faith, Activism and the Youth Vote

Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of the Charlie Kirk Show and spokesperson for Turning Point USA (TPUSA), discusses his journey from ranching to conservative media. He emphasizes the importance of in-person gatherings like the Student Action Summit for Gen Z activism. Kolvet addresses TPUSA's challenges and its mission to empower young conservatives through voter outreach and faith-based values. He highlights the generational disconnect in political discourse, particularly around U.S. foreign policy and support for Israel, advocating for dialogue and understanding among differing perspectives.

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Partial Transcript [0:25] Introduction to Andrew Colvet Hearts of Oak   [0:23]And hello, Hearts of Oak. Thanks so much for joining us once again. It's great to have someone who's popped up on my screen a fair bit recently, and that is Andrew Colvet. Andrew, thank you so much for your time today. Andrew Kolvet   [0:37]Pleasure to be with you. Happy to be here. Hearts of Oak   [0:40]Thanks so much. And obviously you're the executive producer of the Charlie Kirk Show, which is possibly why people have had you pop up on their screen. And you're also spokesman for Turning Point USA. And I've seen you on different programs discussing TPUSA and their involvement and role in all different areas in terms of the battles that we are facing, not only in the US for free speech, but worldwide. But maybe, Andrew, I can just ask you to introduce yourself a little bit. You're there on the West Coast. People know you from the Charlie Kirscher Turning Point USA. Maybe give us a little bit of your background. Andrew Kolvet   [1:28]Yeah, no, I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, I'm actually a born and raised Nevada boy, fifth generation Nevada ranchers. So I come from cowboys and rancher stock very proudly. And I call myself a refugee in the People's Republic of California. I happen to marry a California girl, and we've got people taking care of our kids and in-laws and family members, so it works out. And I travel a lot for my work, so here we are. But yeah, I mean, my background is I went to school at the University of Washington. So if you're American, that's the Huskies. Had a great time in Seattle. Then ended up living in the UK for a bit Living in Kenya for a bit on a mission trip And then headed to Los Angeles Where I was involved in Hollywood And got into producing and then marketing film and TV projects Worked for Mark Burnett, A pretty well-known TV producer Another Brit.

Episode Transcript

Hearts of Oak: And hello, Hearts of Oak. Thanks so much for joining us once again. (00:23):
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Hearts of Oak: It's great to have someone who's popped up on my screen a fair bit recently, (00:26):
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Hearts of Oak: and that is Andrew Colvett. (00:31):
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Hearts of Oak: Andrew, thank you so much for your time today. (00:34):
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Andrew Kolvet: Pleasure to be with you. Happy to be here. (00:37):
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Hearts of Oak: Thanks so much. And obviously you're the executive producer of the Charlie Kirk (00:40):
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Hearts of Oak: Show, which is possibly why people have had you pop up on their screen. (00:44):
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Hearts of Oak: And you're also spokesman for Turning Point USA. (00:49):
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Hearts of Oak: And I've seen you on different programs discussing TPUSA and their involvement (00:54):
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Hearts of Oak: and role in all different areas in terms of the battles that we are facing, (01:01):
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Hearts of Oak: not only in the US for free speech, but worldwide. (01:07):
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Hearts of Oak: But maybe, Andrew, I can just ask you to introduce yourself a little bit. (01:12):
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Hearts of Oak: You're there on the West Coast. (01:18):
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Hearts of Oak: People know you from the Charlie Kirscher Turning Point USA. (01:21):
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Hearts of Oak: Maybe give us a little bit of your background. (01:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: Yeah, no, I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, I'm actually a born and raised (01:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: Nevada boy, fifth generation Nevada ranchers. So I come from cowboys and rancher stock very proudly. (01:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I call myself a refugee in the People's Republic of California. (01:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: I happen to marry a California girl, and we've got people taking care of our (01:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: kids and in-laws and family members, so it works out. (01:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I travel a lot for my work, so here we are. (01:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: But yeah, I mean, my background is I went to school at the University of Washington. (01:57):
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Andrew Kolvet: So if you're American, that's the Huskies. Had a great time in Seattle. (02:03):
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Andrew Kolvet: Then ended up living in (02:08):
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Andrew Kolvet: the UK for a bit Living in Kenya for a bit on a mission trip And then headed (02:11):
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Andrew Kolvet: to Los Angeles Where I was involved in Hollywood And got into producing and (02:19):
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Andrew Kolvet: then marketing film and TV projects Worked for Mark Burnett, (02:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: A pretty well-known TV producer Another Brit. (02:31):
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Andrew Kolvet: And we ended up, you know, he's well known for The Voice and Celebrity Apprentice (02:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: and Shark Tank and Survivor, a lot of great properties. (02:41):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then he started launching faith-based content and sort of looked around (02:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: the room and who here is a Christian? (02:49):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so I got the call and I, (02:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: I helped him launch some of his Christian programming, faith-based programming. (02:58):
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Andrew Kolvet: Some of your viewers might remember the Bible series, which was kind of one of the first of its kind. (03:03):
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Andrew Kolvet: Then he did AD, The Bible Continues on NBC, and then Ben-Hur. (03:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I was sort of tasked with doing a lot of the PR and marketing and church (03:15):
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Andrew Kolvet: relationship building for those projects. (03:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: And it was a wild ride. (03:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: Some of the most fulfilling career years that I can look back to. (03:26):
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Andrew Kolvet: And we did a lot of great work, but then we launched a PR company and me and (03:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: Mark's chief of staff at the time. (03:37):
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Andrew Kolvet: And kind of the rest is history. At that point, (03:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: we ended up, I worked right with Prager U, (03:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: The Blaze and Turning (03:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: Point USA and then eventually Charlie kind of (03:50):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know asked to have me (03:53):
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Andrew Kolvet: a little bit more hands-on dedicated time liked (03:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: the opportunity loved what Turning Point was doing and then Charlie and I launched (03:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: the Charlie Kirk show in 2019 May 1st 2019 and now it's a you know it's a top (04:04):
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Andrew Kolvet: 50 podcast in the states and I think you know as of right now talking to you (04:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: I I think it's number seven in all of Apple News podcasts. (04:15):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so the growth has been tremendous. We took it to nationally syndicated radio (04:19):
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Andrew Kolvet: in 2020, October of 2020. So just before that election. (04:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then we joined Real America's Voice simulcasting right after Steve Bannon's (04:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: war room in, I believe, July of 2022. (04:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: But it's just been an absolute rocket ship and a wild ride. (04:37):
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Andrew Kolvet: And obviously a lot of that is due to Charlie and his way of phrasing things, (04:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: his way of challenging the culture, all the activism that we do through Turning Point USA. (04:46):
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Andrew Kolvet: So it's created a really, I would (04:50):
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Andrew Kolvet: say, symbiotic relationship between the activism side and the media side. (04:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: And it's been an absolute pleasure to be a part of and truly a wild ride. (04:59):
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Hearts of Oak: And the juggernaut that is turning point USA and the impact it's had on the (05:05):
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Hearts of Oak: Charlie Kirk show, and we'll get into all of that. (05:09):
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Hearts of Oak: But an American doing mission in Kenya, that's not a most America's tick box. (05:12):
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Hearts of Oak: Just a little bit about that. I mean, I did two years after my uni with InterVarsity (05:21):
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Hearts of Oak: and working in the student movement in Bulgaria. area. (05:27):
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Hearts of Oak: And it's always good to take time out and see if you can actually input somewhere (05:30):
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Hearts of Oak: completely different and not in your own backyard. But maybe let's know a little (05:36):
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Hearts of Oak: bit about what that was doing mission work in Kenya. (05:41):
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Andrew Kolvet: Yeah, well, so I grew up Catholic. I still love the Catholics. My dad was a lectern. (05:44):
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Andrew Kolvet: I went to a church that went to a Catholic high school. (05:50):
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Andrew Kolvet: I would say that's probably where my faith journey kind of really started to (05:55):
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Andrew Kolvet: begin. It was in high school searching, asking questions. (05:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: We had a great priest there, Father Chuck, who would listen to me ask, (06:03):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know, crazy questions. (06:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then I ended up going to University of Washington, where I got saved in (06:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: my dorm room freshman year reading my Catholic Bible that I had brought with me from high school. (06:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: But I was reading a sociology book called The Rise of Christianity, (06:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: which was a signed reading at the time because Rodney Stark, the author... (06:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: He was in the sociology department at the University of Washington. (06:39):
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Andrew Kolvet: He was widely regarded as the leading religious sociologist in the world. (06:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: At the time, he ended up, in my sophomore year, going over to University of (06:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: Baylor and running the sociology department there. But because he was on faculty, (06:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: it was assigned reading, as is often the case. (06:57):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so I was reading that book and sparked a couple questions about some of the verses. (07:00):
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Andrew Kolvet: It was just about how the faith spread through the Roman Empire. (07:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: So I dusted off my Catholic youth Bible and started reading. (07:08):
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Andrew Kolvet: And before I knew it, in the course of a night, I had read the Gospel of John. (07:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then I read Acts, Book of Acts. And then from there, it was kind of like, well, what do I do now? (07:19):
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Andrew Kolvet: Because I think I, at some point in the course of reading those two books, (07:26):
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Andrew Kolvet: realized that I believed. (07:29):
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Andrew Kolvet: And it was an amazing moment. You know, in college, I think the image you have (07:31):
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Andrew Kolvet: in your head is that you're going to go party and go to CAGRs. (07:37):
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Andrew Kolvet: And that's certainly the image I sort of had in my head. And, (07:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know, right when I got to school in a very liberal city, (07:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know, Seattle is the second least church city in America behind San Francisco. (07:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: Here I was becoming a Christian in Seattle. (07:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: And that sparked my faith journey. And college was really marked for me, just exploring that. (07:55):
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Andrew Kolvet: Some might know Mark Driscoll was in Seattle at the time. (08:03):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so there was a lot of action just in and around Seattle. (08:07):
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Andrew Kolvet: Whatever you think of Mark, he was leading a lot of young men to Christ as well. (08:12):
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Andrew Kolvet: So I remember I visited his church a number of times. (08:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: There was a Presbyterian church at school. Anyways, it was a great experience. (08:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: And for whatever reason, I just got plugged in with the more Protestant evangelical (08:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: groups that were more active on campus at the time. (08:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so by the time I graduated, I wanted to go put my faith into action somewhere else. (08:31):
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Andrew Kolvet: I don't know why that was the mission in my head, but I went to Africa. (08:37):
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Andrew Kolvet: And ironically, I'd spent about eight months in Spain. (08:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: I'd spent a couple long stays in Cyprus. My mother and stepdad are archaeologists, (08:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: and they had a dig site through University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Cyprus. (08:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: So I would spend on multiple summers, spent time over there. (08:57):
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Andrew Kolvet: Lived in the UK for a bit, like I said. And then I lived in Kenya. Yeah. (09:01):
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Andrew Kolvet: And great mission work. Amazing to see their faith. (09:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: Amazing to see just how pure it is and I presume continues to be. (09:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: Working with the Maasai people, there was actually a political uprising in Kenya (09:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: at the time where the most populous tribe had been in power for 40 years. (09:22):
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Andrew Kolvet: And polling was suggesting that the second most populous tribe was about to win the election. (09:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: Some funny business happened and riots and (09:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: protests happened uh as a result on the (09:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: back end of that and i so my job quickly became sort (09:39):
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Andrew Kolvet: of documenting uh the un camps the the food distribution and all of those types (09:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: of things it was very fascinating very interesting i learned a ton um uh but (09:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: it left me with a real strong desire but i mentioned all that traveling it left (09:53):
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Andrew Kolvet: me with really strong desire to build and thrive where I was from. (09:57):
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Andrew Kolvet: I missed home like you can't imagine after all of that. (10:01):
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Andrew Kolvet: I'd lived out of suitcase for so long. Even college felt like living out of a suitcase. (10:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: And all I wanted to do at the end of that trip was get home and build and really (10:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: make America great, right, in my small way. (10:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: So that is my journey. I sort of had to go walk about. (10:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: I look at all those years and I think about them as a time when I relearned to love America. (10:26):
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Andrew Kolvet: I think I think my experience was like a lot of young kids where you sort of (10:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: you hear about the food in Europe or the way they do things in other places. (10:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: And you just assume that your home is somehow backwards or doing it wrong. (10:41):
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Andrew Kolvet: And and I left. And I mean, it was years away when you when you count it all (10:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: together. And by the time I was done, I just desperately wanted I missed home. (10:53):
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Andrew Kolvet: I loved home. I realized what I had been blessed with to be an American, (10:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: to be born in this country. (11:03):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I couldn't, I was just excited to get started. And so that was, (11:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: that was kind of that journey. (11:08):
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Andrew Kolvet: And, you know, the way my career has gone, the way different things have fallen (11:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: for me, I think I've had an opportunity to do that. And I'm, I'm grateful for it. (11:12):
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Hearts of Oak: Well, certainly I want to pick up on the, on the fifth element. (11:17):
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Hearts of Oak: And I think it's important to, to travel and to see what happens elsewhere in (11:20):
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Hearts of Oak: other countries. and then you understand where you are in your home and where that fits in. (11:26):
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Hearts of Oak: But I want to ask you, Student Action Summit, you just had that in Turning Point USA. (11:32):
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Hearts of Oak: And I've just, Moe Bannon, I've just actually been on with her doing another interview with her. (11:40):
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Hearts of Oak: And she was one of the speakers there. Maybe tell us a little bit about the (11:46):
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Hearts of Oak: role of conferences like that, Student Action Summit. I know many other TPUSA (11:51):
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Hearts of Oak: conferences, but that one's just finished. (11:58):
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Hearts of Oak: Maybe give us your thoughts on that, which just happened weeks ago. (12:01):
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Andrew Kolvet: Yeah, I mean, it was an incredible success. (12:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: I'm so proud of the team. And it was the biggest student action summit we've ever hosted. (12:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: We also do America Fest, AmFest in December in Phoenix at the convention center there. (12:16):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I think in December, that was 21,000 people. (12:21):
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Andrew Kolvet: Obviously, we just won the election. We had President Trump. (12:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: There was a lot of great energy. (12:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: But as far as Student Action Summit, which is much more of a student focus, (12:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: having 7,000 people come to that was just tremendous. (12:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, it was huge. It was so much energy. (12:38):
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Andrew Kolvet: And it was coming, I think, at a really critical time where you've got this (12:41):
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Andrew Kolvet: Epstein story coming up. (12:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: We're just off the heels of the Iran-Israel conflict. (12:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: President Trump was talking about Ukraine and what we're going to be doing there. (12:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: So there was just a lot going on in the base energy right when we were meeting (12:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: at Tampa, a lot of questions. (13:01):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so, you know, the event gets streamed everywhere from C-SPAN to Fox Nation (13:03):
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Andrew Kolvet: to Real America's Voice to all over Rumble. (13:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: I think Rumble, we were the exclusive stream like that entire weekend, (13:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: the most highlighted stream. (13:16):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then the clips obviously go viral everywhere. (13:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: And, you know, we had Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Steve Bannon. (13:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: Tulsi Gabbard, Kristi Noem had a DHS. (13:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: We had Tom Homan, Bordersar. We had Pete Hegseth, Department of Defense Secretary. (13:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: So it's just a massive star-studded event. So many great speakers, (13:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: so many great speeches that were given. (13:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: But your first question was, what is the significance of something like the (13:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: Student Action Summit? Well, it's incredibly significant. (13:44):
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Andrew Kolvet: So much of our life, especially for Gen Z, is online, is digital. (13:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, the show is consumed in that form. So much of our time is spent on a screen. (13:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so when you bring that to IRL in real life, and you get these kids in an (13:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: environment where they see other students just like them all across the country (14:02):
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Andrew Kolvet: that have conservative ideas, that are Christian, (14:07):
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Andrew Kolvet: that have the same concerns, wants, needs, desires, it puts flesh on the bones (14:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: of everything that they are thinking, feeling, and believing, (14:15):
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Andrew Kolvet: and they build relationships that will last a lifetime. (14:19):
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Andrew Kolvet: So all of that, I mean, it's, you know, in our digital world, (14:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: those in real life moments become more and more precious and more and more valuable. (14:27):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I think back to when I was, you know, 15, 16, 17, 18, and we, (14:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know, it's kind of like 25 and under, you know, that's the student age that we do it at. (14:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: If I think back to those years in my life and how formative those were and how (14:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: incredible an experience like traveling across the country for a multiple day (14:46):
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Andrew Kolvet: conference and meeting all those people, the breakouts, (14:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: the socials, you know, we had like a Mountain Dew social where they get to dance (14:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: and it's very clean and just good fun, you know, where they get to kind of be (14:58):
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Andrew Kolvet: around people that are like minded. (15:03):
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Andrew Kolvet: I can't imagine having that type of opportunity at that age. (15:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so in order to be able to provide that to kids and be a part of that experience, (15:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: and then you combine just the social aspect with the incredible exposure to (15:14):
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Andrew Kolvet: the best minds in the conservative movement, (15:19):
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Andrew Kolvet: and you get to see Steve Bannon doing War Room from the floor and Charlie doing (15:21):
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Andrew Kolvet: the Charlie Kirk show from the floor and so many others. We had so many great media partners. (15:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, it's a special moment. There's just no doubt about it. (15:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: And this year was no different. (15:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: It's tremendously impactful as well, because so many of those students will (15:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: take what they see at that conference, and they'll go start a chapter at their (15:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: university, or they'll get plugged back in with their faith. (15:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, there's just so many stories like that. It will encourage you endlessly. (15:48):
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Hearts of Oak: And i'll come back to that focus on on (15:53):
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Hearts of Oak: youth which is uh which i think is (15:57):
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Hearts of Oak: maybe fairly unique with turning point usa in terms of other uh conservative (16:00):
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Hearts of Oak: outlets but the i mean the the turning point usa story is is phenomenal how (16:06):
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Hearts of Oak: i think charlie was only maybe a teen whenever he launched it maybe yeah 18 13 years ago 14 years ago (16:12):
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Andrew Kolvet: Something like yeah 2012 he started it it is It's basically his parents' garage. (16:19):
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Andrew Kolvet: It's one of those stories in Lamont, Illinois. (16:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: They got sort of like a little, you know, one of those addresses that's the (16:26):
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Andrew Kolvet: building so small it has a half in it. (16:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: It was the big first jump. And eventually it moved to Phoenix, (16:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: Arizona, where it's based currently. (16:38):
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Hearts of Oak: But let us, because I think people always want to know kind of what's the secret of success. (16:40):
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Hearts of Oak: And then when you hear hard work you lose most of the audience but it is hard (16:48):
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Hearts of Oak: work it is having a vision, a belief and actually plugging away at it and not (16:54):
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Hearts of Oak: giving up at the first or second hurdle (16:59):
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Hearts of Oak: and seeing where it's come I think shows that this is the American dream when (17:01):
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Hearts of Oak: you have an idea something you work for and don't give up whatever setbacks (17:09):
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Hearts of Oak: and keep pushing And it shows what actually you can build, (17:13):
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Hearts of Oak: building an entity that actually has an impact on the national stage. (17:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: Yeah, no, hard work is, I mean, you can't get away from it, right, Peter? (17:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, it's like, you know, I've had the pleasure of working with two truly (17:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: dynamic principals, right? (17:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: Mark Burnett, British national, great guy, would keep everybody up all night. (17:38):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, with messages, are you still working on this? (17:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: You know, you never knew when you were going to get, and it just kind of had (17:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: that motor, right? Right. (17:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: And Charlie's the same way. And I do tend to think that there is a certain subset (17:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: of the population that just has this motor. Right. (17:57):
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Andrew Kolvet: That that is just doggedly observing, looking, seeing, critiquing himself and (18:00):
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Andrew Kolvet: the team, you know, driving excellence. (18:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: A lot of those things have been learned along the way. You don't just wake up (18:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: one day and you think, oh, I'm going to start a $100 million a year org, (18:14):
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Andrew Kolvet: and we're going to have 600, 700 employees scattered across the country. (18:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: It's going to be great and easy. (18:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: No, I mean, from point zero to where we're at now, you just don't know what (18:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: you're doing when you start. (18:31):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, I've been working with Charlie for, I think, seven or eight years now, (18:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: and just even in that time. So I wasn't even there during the beginning, (18:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: the very beginning, but I saw it at a much, much more nascent place. (18:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so, you know, this has been a tremendous work of truly Charlie Kirk. (18:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, there's no getting around just what he means to the organization and (18:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: what the sort of spirit and energy that from the top down that he pushes out (18:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: through all the staff and all of the efforts and events that we do. (19:00):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I, you know, listen, I work so close to him, Charlie, I'm probably one of (19:04):
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Andrew Kolvet: the most honest people with him, so I don't blow smoke. (19:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: But truly, like, you know, I can't give him enough credit for how he's gone (19:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: about doing what he's doing. (19:19):
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Andrew Kolvet: And by the way, I mean, the ups and the downs, (19:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: the highs and the lows, the setbacks and the achievements and the accomplishment, (19:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: and you take it from 2020 and J6 and the dark days of Trump being pushed into (19:26):
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Andrew Kolvet: political exile and to that moment, (19:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: I don't know if you've seen it, that clip on election night. (19:37):
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Andrew Kolvet: When Fox ends up calling Pennsylvania for President Trump, and it secured the electoral victory. (19:41):
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Andrew Kolvet: Obviously, we ended up running the table and winning the popular vote. (19:49):
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Andrew Kolvet: But there's that moment where Charlie just sort of collapses in his chair, (19:53):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know, and gets a little misty-eyed because we had truly left it all out on the field. (19:58):
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Andrew Kolvet: We had truly left it out all on the field. (20:04):
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Andrew Kolvet: And if you are somebody that wants to achieve greatness, that's what it's going to take. (20:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, I feel like we didn't stop working from, you know, I mean, (20:12):
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Andrew Kolvet: like I said earlier, we started our radio show. (20:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: We took our podcast to broadcast in October of 2020. (20:21):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I remember feeling in the weeks after the election, (20:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: like it was the first time that I, in turn, I let whatever that tightness in (20:29):
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Andrew Kolvet: my I don't know if it was subconscious or in my stomach and my gut. (20:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: It was the first time I felt it. (20:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: I felt finally like I could take a moment and really breathe. (20:41):
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Andrew Kolvet: But it was, you know, essentially five years of just complete and utter dedication (20:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: to winning our country back and winning back the youth and winning back all (20:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: of these things that we felt had been taken. (20:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: And, you know, it was truly exhausting. It was truly exhausting and so worth it. (21:00):
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Andrew Kolvet: You know, especially given the outcome. But there was a lot of efforts that (21:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: we put a lot of time and energy in that we didn't get that kind of payoff, but it didn't stop us. (21:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I think that's the key, is knowing that when you're going to start something, (21:14):
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Andrew Kolvet: that you will have massive setbacks. You will. (21:19):
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Andrew Kolvet: If you dare great, you dare to lose great. (21:22):
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Andrew Kolvet: And it's completely worth it. (21:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, you think about a world in which Turning Point doesn't exist. (21:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: You think about a world where we didn't win the youth vote in Michigan and we (21:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: didn't win in Arizona, where we didn't see the biggest move in young people, (21:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: where we didn't see almost 2 billion TikTok views of Charlie's debates on campuses. (21:39):
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Andrew Kolvet: You think about that world and all of those, you know, people like to see the (21:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: big shiny thing and they think Charlie was like grown in a Petri dish by RNC donors. (21:49):
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Andrew Kolvet: Like that is completely false. I just can't even tell you if anything, (21:53):
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Andrew Kolvet: the RNC tried to kill us like half the time. We got into that big fight with (21:58):
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Andrew Kolvet: Rana, but before that, it was a simmering feud for years, and they tried to take us down. (22:02):
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Andrew Kolvet: They tried to take out our donors. These are people on our side. (22:07):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so, you know, just everything that you overcome, all the haters online, (22:11):
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Andrew Kolvet: you just can't imagine all the different things. (22:16):
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Andrew Kolvet: And though this person decide that you're bad for the movement or you're too (22:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: obnoxious, you're too loud, you're too confrontational, you're too this, (22:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: you're too that, you're sucking up the donor dollars. (22:27):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, just imagine everything, you know, we're too friendly with Israel, (22:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: whatever. However, the amount of barriers that are thrown in your way to get (22:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: from point A to point B is truly remarkable. (22:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I'm really proud of what Turning Point's accomplished. (22:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: I'm really proud of what we've accomplished at the Charlie Kirk Show. (22:49):
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Andrew Kolvet: I'm really proud of what Charlie himself has overcome because he doesn't get enough credit for it. (22:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: I think people see just what it is now, and they have no perception of what (22:55):
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Andrew Kolvet: it took, the grit and just the fortitude to get from point A to point B. (23:01):
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Hearts of Oak: That will stand my head, Charlie Kirk who in the RNC Petri dish. That will stick with me. (23:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: That's what a lot of people think about him. I mean, they think like, (23:12):
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Andrew Kolvet: oh, you just grow a Charlie Kirk out of nowhere. (23:15):
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Andrew Kolvet: And you see this actually with what the Democrats are trying to do now. (23:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: They're trying to spend $20 million to speak to young men, and they've got their (23:21):
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Andrew Kolvet: Voters of Tomorrow summit that looks just terrible. (23:27):
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Andrew Kolvet: And they're like, how do you get a Charlie Kirk that can have this activist (23:31):
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Andrew Kolvet: network with thousands of chapters in high school and colleges across the country (23:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: with these huge national events, (23:41):
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Andrew Kolvet: with this massive social footprint, as well as the media side of the Charlie (23:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: Kirk show, So as well as Turning Point Action, (23:49):
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Andrew Kolvet: the C4, we do ballot chasing and door knocking and we have the app. (23:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I mean, it's like they're like, oh, we just need to create one of those. (23:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: It kind of reminds me of like, you know, the left also doing that with Joe Rogan. (23:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: We need our own Joe Rogan. And it's like, you can't just do these things. (24:02):
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Andrew Kolvet: You can't just, you know, be like, oh, he's our chosen instrument and you turn him into this thing. (24:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: No, I mean, Charlie was born by God probably for this exact moment and who knows what else. (24:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: And turning point, I think, has been protected by God and the work that we've done. (24:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: God's been guiding us and protecting us the whole way. There's no doubt. (24:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so, that's the other answer to your original question. When you're talking (24:27):
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Andrew Kolvet: about origin stories, pray, ask God to help you, and then work, and then move. (24:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: And there's an old figure of speech, old expression, is that you can't turn a parked car. (24:38):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so if you are listening to this and your car is parked, you can't get out (24:44):
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Andrew Kolvet: of the situation you're in. You can only get out if you move forward. (24:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: Sometimes you got to move back to get forward if you're stuck, (24:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: but you got to move. And that's the key. (24:54):
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Hearts of Oak: I mean, half of our viewers are U.S. (24:57):
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Hearts of Oak: And half are U.K., but the whole concept of actually faith being vital and faith (25:00):
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Hearts of Oak: in Christ being vital is another step for most Brits or Europeans. (25:07):
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Hearts of Oak: But in the U.S., it kind of fits with the psyche and the ethos. (25:14):
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Hearts of Oak: But how do you see that faith, that vision, that calling the individual, how does that all fit in? (25:19):
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Hearts of Oak: Because what Turning Point USA are doing is maybe a little bit different than (25:29):
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Hearts of Oak: the Republican conservative, cultural conservative model. (25:33):
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Hearts of Oak: What Turning Point USA are actually calling people to actually following Christ (25:37):
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Hearts of Oak: in whatever that means for you? (25:46):
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Hearts of Oak: And that is much more blatant but much more intimate, I think, (25:48):
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Hearts of Oak: than the other conservative media. Does that make sense? (25:53):
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Andrew Kolvet: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of that comes from, again, you know, (25:57):
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Andrew Kolvet: Charlie, and I'm a devout Christian. (26:00):
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Andrew Kolvet: A lot of our leadership is, not all, but we do have a TPUSA faith. (26:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: Not yet, not yet. Not yet, yeah, not yet. (26:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: But I mean, that's what's interesting, right? Because you have Charlie who, (26:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: especially, you know, since he's been married, since COVID, since having children, (26:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: myself since being married, having kids. (26:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: Our faith drives everything that we do. There's no doubt about it that that (26:27):
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Andrew Kolvet: is just a critical element. (26:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: It's always there. Whether we're doing something completely disconnected on (26:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: the outside from what you see from faith, it's still driving the way that we speak. (26:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: It's driving the tone. It's driving our turns of phrase. (26:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: Everything about what we do, I hope and I pray, is anchored and emanating from our faith in Jesus. (26:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: But, you know, we also do have TPUSA faith, which is something that started (26:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: right out of COVID because we saw it was happening with the church. (27:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: The churches were getting shut down. Liquor stores and pot dispensaries were (27:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: open, but, you know, the church couldn't meet in person. (27:12):
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Andrew Kolvet: Without defying the state. And so, (27:15):
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Andrew Kolvet: There was this need to be sort of this gathering function, just like we were (27:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: doing with the events, just like we were doing with AmFest and Student Action (27:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: Summit. How do we get everybody together? (27:26):
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Andrew Kolvet: How do we get like-minded pastors all across the country into singing from the (27:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: same hymnal, if ever that was an appropriate expression? How do we do that? (27:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: And, you know, so out of that need to be able to put all these pastors together (27:38):
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Andrew Kolvet: that wanted to push back at what we felt was tyranny, TPUSA Faith was born. (27:44):
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Andrew Kolvet: And we realized that if you do not speak into the void, then the secularists are going to. (27:50):
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Andrew Kolvet: And you see that in the UK, you see that across Europe, where faith is sort (27:57):
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Andrew Kolvet: of looked on as a dirty throwback to a bygone era, (28:01):
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Andrew Kolvet: and it should be properly put in its place and just dusted out for weddings (28:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: and funerals. And that's not how we see it. (28:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: No, faith has to drive everything that we do. I mean, if you look at any single (28:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: issue across the political spectrum, if you are not driving from a place informed (28:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: by your faith, you will get far afield. (28:22):
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Andrew Kolvet: You will get far askew from what the original vision of our founders, (28:27):
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Andrew Kolvet: of our country, of our Constitution is. (28:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I would say the same is true for the UK, that you cannot have a robust, (28:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: vital, empowered, civic-minded population that is not connected first to God. (28:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I think anywhere you see that, you're seeing our civilization slowly crumble (28:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: and collapse and get taken over, whether that be through immigration, (28:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: whether that be through secularism, whether that be through radical communism (28:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: or socialism, like you see in our country with Saurabh Mandani. Yeah. (29:00):
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Andrew Kolvet: The faith element is so critical. And I mean, I could monologue on that longer, but it's truly. (29:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: For me, if you don't know where your values are starting from, (29:14):
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Andrew Kolvet: emanating from, then you are lost. You are lost adrift at sea. (29:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: And, you know, I believe it was Socrates, but it could have been Plato, (29:22):
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Andrew Kolvet: where it says, politics is the highest form of sociability, you know? (29:27):
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Andrew Kolvet: And we also have to remember that our morals, our laws are all moral statements, right? (29:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: Every single law that we passed is essentially rooted in a moral statement. (29:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: Well, where does that morality come from? Well, it's either going to come from (29:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: your faith or it's going to come from the world. Absolutely. (29:47):
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Hearts of Oak: Can I, because Turning Point USA kind of started and was there in the Obama regime, (29:51):
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Hearts of Oak: and then the Charlie Kirk Show (29:58):
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Hearts of Oak: launches in a President Trump time and then that's snatched away in 2020 (30:00):
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Hearts of Oak: and now you're there with the second or third Trump presidency, however you call it. (30:12):
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Hearts of Oak: But how does, I guess, what is the role of Turning Point USA, (30:19):
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Hearts of Oak: say Charlie Kirk show in, in being this, this new alternative media that actually (30:25):
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Hearts of Oak: is really only started, um, (30:31):
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Hearts of Oak: since president Trump's first term and is now the driving way of information. (30:34):
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Hearts of Oak: How does, how do you kind of fit into that, um, that ethos? (30:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: Yeah. I mean, that's an interesting question. I, you know, I, (30:46):
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Andrew Kolvet: I tend to believe that some of the, the most. (30:50):
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Andrew Kolvet: Creative solutions come out of having your back up against the wall, right? (30:55):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, when we started the podcast, you know, it's not like I could call up (30:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: CNN and say, hey, I got this great guy, Charlie Kirk, can you book him? (31:04):
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Andrew Kolvet: No, they would have laughed in my face. As a matter of fact, they did. (31:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: I tried that because at one point I was, you know, hey, let's go challenge them (31:12):
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Andrew Kolvet: in their places of power. Let's go have these discussions. (31:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: And it wasn't happening. I mean, Charlie was able to get on Fox News and Fox Business and in. (31:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: You know, that was happening. But really, it was how do we own, (31:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know, we have a thing we say sometimes, like, we the media now, right? (31:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: And what we were able to do is really just ride away of right place, (31:37):
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Andrew Kolvet: right time, but also having the gumption to say, hey, I think we could do this really well. (31:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: I think we are a voice in this space that's missing right now. (31:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so we just started with the podcast. (31:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: And man, I mean, we tripped over ourselves in that first year so many times. (31:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: And at first we were doing one episode a week. (32:01):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then eventually we went to two episodes a week and then three episodes a (32:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: week. But remember the time frame that we're in. (32:10):
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Andrew Kolvet: So we started in 2019, in May of 2019. A year later, the world would be shut (32:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: down because of COVID, less than a year. (32:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so in that first year, I mean, we were watching the numbers grow, (32:21):
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Andrew Kolvet: they were growing, but it was, you know, it wasn't astronomical. (32:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, maybe for a lot of people, it probably would have been, (32:29):
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Andrew Kolvet: but it wasn't what we wanted yet. We had bigger goals and aspirations. (32:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then what happened was when the world shut down for COVID and we were not (32:37):
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Andrew Kolvet: able to do the activism piece, right? We had to cancel our summer student action event. (32:41):
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Andrew Kolvet: We ended up basically saying, hey, we have nothing to do. Let's go five days a week. (32:46):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then the George Floyd riots in the States happened. (32:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I'll never forget the day that I saw the black squares start showing up (32:57):
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Andrew Kolvet: on my Instagram account and just knowing intuitively something was radically off. (33:03):
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Andrew Kolvet: Something was really, really off. (33:08):
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Andrew Kolvet: And just being like, this feels coercive, like bands were getting canceled if (33:11):
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Andrew Kolvet: they didn't put it on their band page. (33:15):
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Andrew Kolvet: It was, you were guilty if you didn't take part in the protests against systemic (33:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: racism in the United States. It's something that I don't believe is even true, (33:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: that we are systemically racist. Are there racists? Sure. (33:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: Is there systemic racism? No. Do black neighborhoods want more policing? (33:31):
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Andrew Kolvet: Yes. Do they benefit from it? Yes. (33:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: And yet we were supposed to believe this idea that all these police officers are bad people. (33:38):
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Andrew Kolvet: I just remember getting silently enraged and I called Charlie going like, (33:46):
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Andrew Kolvet: who's the first person that they're going to call when they're in a tight spot? (33:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: They're going to call the police. (33:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: They're going to dial 911 and call the police. And yet here they are demonizing (33:55):
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Andrew Kolvet: these people. Are there bad police officers? Sure. (33:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: Is the vast majority of them good? Yes, of course. (34:02):
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Andrew Kolvet: They're there to save your life and to protect you. So I remember just getting (34:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: quietly, secretly enraged, called Charlie. He was completely the same page. (34:08):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I was like, I think you need to do like a selfie. You need to do a selfie (34:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: video. Let's get this out. (34:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: And he was like, absolutely. So, you know, he puts a selfie video and just rages (34:19):
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Andrew Kolvet: against the black squares. (34:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: Just rage. And it's hard even to put your mind back in that place because we've (34:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: come so far, in the States at least, against the DEI oppression, (34:31):
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Andrew Kolvet: against the systemic racism narrative, against all of these things. (34:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: And now you can sort of speak freely. But Twitter was shut down. (34:39):
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Andrew Kolvet: There was no free speech on Twitter. (34:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: Facebook was similar. YouTube was similar. Charlie just went for it and just (34:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: ripped one of the best all-timers of ever on that selfie video. (34:49):
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Andrew Kolvet: Put it up there, went mega viral. (34:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: And we just started going five days a week, pushing back against COVID lockdowns (34:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: and against these riots that were taking over the country in all our major cities. (35:01):
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Andrew Kolvet: And we just saw our audience just ballooned. (35:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: It just exploded during COVID and during BLM. (35:08):
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Andrew Kolvet: And, you know, we've never, never really looked back. (35:13):
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Hearts of Oak: Tell me about getting the vote (35:17):
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Hearts of Oak: out because I think Turning Point USA are becoming feared by the left. (35:19):
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Hearts of Oak: And Charlie Kirk, it's about engaging people. (35:25):
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Hearts of Oak: It's about winning. Hearts of mine, it's about cementing people's position who (35:29):
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Hearts of Oak: are on your side, winning over others. (35:34):
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Hearts of Oak: But it has to be a next step. And one of the main next steps in the West is (35:35):
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Hearts of Oak: playing a part in the democratic process. (35:42):
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Hearts of Oak: And Turning Point USA has been central to that. Tell us about that and I guess (35:45):
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Hearts of Oak: the pushback whenever you've been seen as a key threat. (35:50):
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Andrew Kolvet: You push back from the right or from the left? (35:55):
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Hearts of Oak: Well, from the left, but it could be from the Republican establishment also. (35:57):
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Andrew Kolvet: Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, my, you know, it's one of those things where I think (36:01):
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Andrew Kolvet: at some level I don't even log (36:07):
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Andrew Kolvet: from my own memory when the left attacks us because it's just so usual. (36:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so we're just so accustomed to it. (36:15):
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Andrew Kolvet: You know, when the attacks are from the right, they tend to, (36:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: they're a little bit more memorable for me. And I'm thinking back to, (36:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know, we got into a very public fight with Ronna McDaniel, (36:26):
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Andrew Kolvet: who was the head of the RNC at the time. (36:29):
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Andrew Kolvet: I, you know, I think she still doesn't like us too much from what I gather. (36:31):
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Andrew Kolvet: But we were sick of losing, right? (36:39):
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Andrew Kolvet: And we were watching the Republican establishment simply not get with it when (36:41):
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Andrew Kolvet: it came to ballot chasing. (36:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: And, you know, maybe it was one thing. There was two fundamental things that (36:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: had shifted in the electorate. (36:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: One, President Trump transformed the party from a high prop, (36:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know, minority party, essentially. We would be losing in all the polls. (36:58):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then, you know, this is before Trump, we'd lose in the polls. (37:04):
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Andrew Kolvet: But then on election day, we'd make up the difference because our people would (37:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: come out and their people would stay home. (37:11):
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Andrew Kolvet: Just didn't have the voting habits quite as deeply ingrained. (37:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: But then when Trump came, we ended up getting the low props on our side. (37:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: And they became the high prop voter. (37:22):
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Andrew Kolvet: So that's one change, right? So we might be winning the idea war, (37:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: we might be winning the culture, but when it came to elections, (37:27):
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Andrew Kolvet: we had this disadvantage, and we still do have that disadvantage, (37:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: and we need to stay on top of it. (37:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: So we saw that as a structural deficit we needed to make up for. (37:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: The second thing that changed was that we went from a single-day voting to this (37:39):
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Andrew Kolvet: month-long early voting model. (37:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: A lot of that exploded during COVID. But what we realized was that you are a (37:50):
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Andrew Kolvet: fool if you are not investing a ton of money in raising awareness and then cashing (37:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: in those ballots that are being mailed to people's homes. (38:04):
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Andrew Kolvet: It became a game about how many pieces of paper can you get in the box? (38:07):
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Andrew Kolvet: That's the whole thing. That's it. It's not about even persuasion anymore. (38:11):
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Andrew Kolvet: And Joe Biden, you know, yes, I believe that election was full of shenanigans. (38:15):
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Andrew Kolvet: And you said it was snatched from us. I think that's a great way to say it. (38:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: But really, he proved that you can stay in your basement and hold rallies in (38:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: front of like four people and, you know, and get pieces of paper in the box. That's what he proved. (38:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: You can you can we can dissect 2020 a thousand different ways. (38:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: But what he proved is you can get pieces of paper in the box. You win. (38:39):
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Andrew Kolvet: Problem was, with the donor class on the Republican side, the conservative side, (38:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: they weren't compelled by that. That's not in their muscle memory. (38:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: That's not the way that we've done things. That's not the way that we've asked for money. (38:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: They want to cut a check, write some snazzy ads, see it on TV, (38:55):
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Andrew Kolvet: and send it to their friends. (39:00):
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Andrew Kolvet: And be like, haha, look at this ad I made. (39:02):
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Andrew Kolvet: And they want to do it in the fourth week of October with election one week out. (39:04):
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Andrew Kolvet: That does nothing in our current model. What does help is investing two years (39:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: out, investing 18 months out, (39:14):
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Andrew Kolvet: hiring the staff, training the staff, building relationships with people on (39:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: the ground, and building an army of ballot chasers. And so that's what we did (39:21):
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Andrew Kolvet: through Turning Point Action. (39:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I like to look at Arizona because that was the throw-it-all-at-the-wall (39:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: test case, right? We were also massively involved in Wisconsin statewide. (39:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: We were also involved in Michigan 7, Nevada 3. but Arizona was where we threw (39:37):
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Andrew Kolvet: the kitchen sink at it, right? (39:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: Where we emptied the clip. We unloaded everything we had. (39:44):
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Andrew Kolvet: Hopefully, we'll have even more in the future because we're going to keep building. (39:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: But I mean, we had thousands of people on the ground and we gave them territories (39:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: and we built an app that tracked all their progress and helped keep track of (39:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: their contacts and what was their ballot in. (40:02):
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Andrew Kolvet: And we were cross-referencing that with the Secretary of state's office. (40:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: And, you know, there was a New (40:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: York Times article that came out after the election that checked our work. (40:11):
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Andrew Kolvet: The same reporter had come out in April of 2024. And then he came out, I believe, in December. (40:14):
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Andrew Kolvet: And he wanted to check our work. And, you know, basically, he summed it up that (40:22):
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Andrew Kolvet: there was 315,000 first time and low propensity voters that voted in Arizona (40:27):
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Andrew Kolvet: for President Trump that did not show up in 2020. (40:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: That's 315,000. (40:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: And what was the results? (40:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: Trump ends up carrying a state he lost by 10,000. He carried it by, (40:41):
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Andrew Kolvet: I believe, about 200,000. (40:46):
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Andrew Kolvet: And it was the best performing swing state. (40:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: We won it by over five and a half points in 2024. (40:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: So that's the power of messaging combined with on the ground, (40:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: boots on the ground, an army of ballot chasers and with a lot of focus, (40:58):
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Andrew Kolvet: a lot of sophistication. (41:04):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so that's the message. That's the model that we want to bring to other swing (41:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: states, to other competitive races that we have to win. (41:09):
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Hearts of Oak: Can I ask you one thing that popped up on, and I've kind of engaged with Steve (41:14):
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Hearts of Oak: about this and talking to Maureen Ban about this, is, (41:19):
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Hearts of Oak: and it kind of rears head a little bit at the Student Action Summit, (41:22):
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Hearts of Oak: having Steve speaking, having Tucker speaking, and it's this kind of America first v. Israel first. (41:26):
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Hearts of Oak: And it's perplexing to me, someone who, I'll call myself a Christian Zionist, (41:33):
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Hearts of Oak: And I see the biblical history, (41:39):
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Hearts of Oak: the 3,000-year history of Jerusalem and God's hand on that and biblical prophecy. (41:42):
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Hearts of Oak: But yet there is a confusion of criticizing the Israeli government and that's (41:49):
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Hearts of Oak: regarding as this kind of Jew hatred. (41:56):
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Hearts of Oak: And it's a weird concept that I'm trying to understand and understand where the split comes from. (41:59):
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Hearts of Oak: But I just want to end off on that because it's kind of reared its head a little (42:07):
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Hearts of Oak: bit from that conference. (42:12):
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Hearts of Oak: I think it's a fight that actually you don't really need to have. (42:14):
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Hearts of Oak: If you live in America, you're for America. You can, of course, (42:18):
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Hearts of Oak: have Israel as Israel second. (42:22):
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Hearts of Oak: And part of that, a lot of that will come from faith and biblical history and (42:25):
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Hearts of Oak: also from it's better to have Israel in the Middle East than not Israel. (42:29):
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Hearts of Oak: That's common sense. But yeah, your thoughts on that, that kind of argument that's appeared. (42:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: Yeah, I mean, that's a it's a it's a massive question. (42:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: You just and I love that you you're like, this is not at all. (42:46):
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Andrew Kolvet: I don't get what the controversy is. I was I was thought, why you're asking (42:49):
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Andrew Kolvet: that? I'm thinking you're so British. (42:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: You're so, you know, you're so, you know, you're so the Commonwealth common sense, man. (42:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: And, you know, yes, you would think some of this is common sense, (42:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: but there is a growing generational divide that has emerged between, I would say, (43:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know, and to use inexact language, apologies, boomers, but like the boomer evangelical... (43:14):
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Andrew Kolvet: Way of looking at Israel versus a Gen Z, Catholic, Protestant way of looking at Israel. (43:21):
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Andrew Kolvet: Part of that's theological, right? There is this question and a debate, (43:29):
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Andrew Kolvet: you know, the Catholics find themselves on one side, the dispensationalists (43:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: find themselves on one side about what is Israel. (43:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: A part of it is just the reality that they're seeing on social media. (43:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: There's very loud voices that are spewing Jew hate, and it's very loud, it's very prevalent. (43:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: And not only are you seeing it from the left, but you're seeing it from voices (43:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: that would say that they are part of the right. (43:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: They're very identitarian, though, and they're very fixated on Israel. (44:01):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, you could say that you had a toothache, and they'd probably respond (44:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: in the chat saying it was the Jews. (44:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: I mean, that's how virulent and dumb and just the brain rot is tremendous. (44:11):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so a lot of our students at Turning Point USA are seeing all of those messages. (44:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: It's definitely getting through. (44:22):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then I would say, candidly, there is a part of it where Israel's just been (44:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: really bad at PR after October 7th. (44:27):
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Andrew Kolvet: Part of that, I understand that they had this traumatic event happen. (44:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: They're 9-11 on steroids or whatever the way that they frame it, (44:34):
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Andrew Kolvet: I think, is fair when you look at population size and you think about how many (44:39):
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Andrew Kolvet: people actually died in October 7th and just the barbarism of it. I mean, certainly. (44:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so I understand some of the reaction. (44:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then, of course, you see this campus protest movement across the world, (44:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: really, but in the United States, certainly. (44:55):
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Andrew Kolvet: And Jews are starting to realize, like, hey, there's a lot of people that we (44:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: just got attacked and they seem to hate us more. Like, what happened to the (45:02):
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Andrew Kolvet: sympathy for losing 1,200 people, almost 1,300, and all the hostages? (45:07):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I think what that ended up doing is it created a paranoia with our friends (45:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: in Israel, our Jewish friends in the States, where they feel attacked even when (45:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: they're not getting attacked. (45:24):
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Andrew Kolvet: And then there was pressure put on evangelical circles, on political leaders (45:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: to try and nip this stuff in the bud. (45:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: And that just doesn't work in a social media environment. When you start trying (45:33):
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Andrew Kolvet: to coerce speech, even if you're coming from a place that I can agree with, (45:37):
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Andrew Kolvet: I can't agree with the methods. (45:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: If you're trying to say that, you know, criticizing the Israeli government is (45:43):
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Andrew Kolvet: anti-Semitic, maybe you don't do that, Peter, but a lot of people in the United (45:48):
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Andrew Kolvet: States do that are coming from a good place. (45:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: They tend to be evangelicals. They tend to be political leaders. (45:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: They're trying to pass anti-free speech legislation. (45:57):
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Andrew Kolvet: These are Republicans. We're supposed to be free speech warriors. (46:00):
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Andrew Kolvet: They're passing legislation to protect Jews from anti-Semitism. (46:04):
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Andrew Kolvet: But in practice, it's really anti-free speech legislation. (46:08):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so there just becomes this cognitive dissonance that emerges where you're (46:11):
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Andrew Kolvet: like, hey, we're America first. We're nationalist, populist, conservatives. (46:15):
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Andrew Kolvet: We're MAGA, whatever. you know and but (46:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: yet israel gets all these carve outs you know and (46:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: so young kids are starting to say well okay i (46:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: i don't believe in that that brain rot that that (46:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: jew hatred stuff but like i am like you know why are we passing anti-free speech (46:31):
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Andrew Kolvet: laws for them like i can burn the american flag why can't i burn the israeli (46:37):
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Andrew Kolvet: flag what why why can i boycott you know california or tennessee or But I can't boycott. (46:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: So there becomes this, I think, an issue where we have to look at our own side (46:49):
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Andrew Kolvet: of the house and say, are we doing this the best way? (46:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: And I believe it comes from a false binary that we're presenting young people with. (46:58):
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Andrew Kolvet: And that's, you're either for us or you're against us. You're either pro-Israel (47:02):
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Andrew Kolvet: or you're anti-Semitic. (47:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: And that's just simply not what kids are resonating with. That's pushing them away. (47:08):
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Andrew Kolvet: And we did a poll at the Student Action Summit where we found out that 73% of (47:13):
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Andrew Kolvet: students consider themselves pro-Israel. (47:17):
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Andrew Kolvet: But then we ended up doing a focus group. Charlie and I led it. (47:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: I actually did an interview last night with Batya Ungar-Sargon on NewsNation (47:23):
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Andrew Kolvet: about this focus group. She saw the clip. Yeah. (47:28):
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Andrew Kolvet: And she thought it was fascinating. She's Jewish. And she really resonated with (47:32):
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Andrew Kolvet: what a lot of the kids in this focus group were saying. (47:36):
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Andrew Kolvet: And that's that, like, I feel like I'm guilty of a crime, even though I haven't committed it. (47:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: And they're likening it to being called a racist when they're not actually racist, right? (47:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: In the United States, we went through the whole DEI regime. Now we're pushing (47:51):
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Andrew Kolvet: back on that, thankfully. (47:54):
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Andrew Kolvet: But all these kids have been called pejoratives and bad names their whole lives (47:55):
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Andrew Kolvet: because they're conservatives. (47:59):
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Andrew Kolvet: They've been called racist and fascist and Nazis. (48:00):
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Andrew Kolvet: And here they are. Just add another one. They're being called anti-Semitic if (48:02):
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Andrew Kolvet: they dare ask the question. (48:05):
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Andrew Kolvet: And again, you don't phrase it that way, but there are people that do, (48:07):
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Andrew Kolvet: and there are power players in the United States that will. (48:11):
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Andrew Kolvet: And that, I think, is part of the problem. You can support Israel's right to (48:16):
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Andrew Kolvet: exist and to support their right to defend themselves, as I certainly do. I love Israel. (48:20):
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Andrew Kolvet: I consider myself staunchly pro-Israel and pro-Jews. (48:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: However, if you want to ask questions about military-industrial complex, (48:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: about when Israel needs America to step in and help defend itself, (48:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: or in the case of the Israel-Iran situation, where we actually took an offensive (48:39):
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Andrew Kolvet: posture and dropped those bombs on the nuclear facilities in Iran. (48:45):
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Andrew Kolvet: So those are shades of gray. (48:50):
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Andrew Kolvet: Those are areas and degrees of nuance and difference that you should be allowed (48:52):
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Andrew Kolvet: to have and not be smeared or not be castigated for wrong think. (48:56):
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Andrew Kolvet: I think that the more that we create a third way, a better way that incorporates (49:03):
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Andrew Kolvet: nuance, that incorporates... And here's the key. (49:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: These kids, if you're 21 years old, President Trump has been in the political (49:12):
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Andrew Kolvet: scene basically since you were forming intelligible memories, right? So... (49:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: He has completely reshaped the electorate. Not only did he make us the low prop (49:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: party and, you know, with union guys cheering us, he also made us a nationalist, (49:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: populist, America first party. (49:35):
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Andrew Kolvet: These kids want to make sure that we're putting their country first. (49:38):
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Andrew Kolvet: And they feel like they've been dog walked into constantly defending Israel. (49:42):
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Andrew Kolvet: And they're sick of it, candidly. They might like Israel. They might love Israel. (49:47):
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Andrew Kolvet: They might understand that it's beneficial for the United States to have Israel (49:50):
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Andrew Kolvet: as a staunch ally in the Middle East and to gather intelligence and to be this (49:55):
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Andrew Kolvet: source of civilization in a sea of terrorists, (50:00):
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Andrew Kolvet: in the case of Hamas, that actually want to kill them, or Hezbollah. (50:06):
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Andrew Kolvet: And so they get all that. But the messages that we need to dress that with need (50:09):
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Andrew Kolvet: to change, and we need to not be. (50:15):
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Andrew Kolvet: Offending—our friends need to not be so offended at their friends, (50:18):
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Andrew Kolvet: whether that's Charlie or myself, when we critique these items. (50:21):
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Andrew Kolvet: Because there is a third way. (50:25):
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Andrew Kolvet: There is a way that these kids will embrace the importance of Israel without (50:26):
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Andrew Kolvet: becoming anti-Semitic or anti-Israel. (50:30):
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Andrew Kolvet: So they just need to be given permission to say, hey, we have a different philosophy (50:34):
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Andrew Kolvet: about the role of America in foreign policy, and there's some valid arguments that they have. (50:40):
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Andrew Kolvet: Some of them, we need to push back and make sure they understand the critical (50:46):
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Andrew Kolvet: importance of our allies, whether that be Israel or in other parts of the world. (50:49):
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Andrew Kolvet: But we need to hear them because it's coming from a good place. (50:55):
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Andrew Kolvet: It's genuine. It's good-hearted. It's good faith. (50:59):
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