Charlie Kirk's TPUSA Was Kick-Started By Wyoming Businessman Foster Friess
Foster was a rags-to-riches Wyoming businessman who ran for state governor in 2018 who saw something in the young conservative crusader.
via Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily (excerpt)
The person credited with financially kick-starting Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization was a rags-to-riches Wyoming businessman who ran for state governor in 2018.
Kirk was assassinated on Wednesday when he was shot in the neck at Utah Valley University.
He was speaking to a crowd as part of his “American Comeback” tour.
The FBI on Thursday morning released photos of a person of interest in Kirk’s shooting death, and the agency is asking the public for tips.
By the time of his death, the 31-year-old had become one of the most powerful political voices from the conservative and Christian right, especially among young people.
The group he co-founded, Turning Point USA, sprawls across higher learning campuses and, by fiscal year 2024, reported $17.9 million in net assets and nearly $4 million in net income, according to tax filings.
That was after paying out millions in grants and salaries from a total revenue of nearly $84 million.
When the group started, Kirk was 18, and Wyoming multimillionaire Foster Friess saw something in him, Cowboy State Daily co-founder Annaliese Wiederspahn recalled Thursday, still reeling from Kirk’s death.
Earlier that year, around the spring of 2012, Kirk met 71-year-old Tea Party candidate Bill Montgomery, who encouraged him to undertake political activism, The Independent reported.
They co-founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA) as a nonprofit organization focused on advocating for conservative causes on college campuses.
The organization started by sponsoring debates between Democratic and Republican students on college campuses in the Midwest.
‘The First Check’
By August that year, Kirk was at the Republican National Convention.
He bumped into Friess in a stairwell and convinced him to bankroll the group, according to The Independent.