Far-right group seeks to raise $108M to 'clean house' of swing state election officials

Turning Point USA (TPUSA) — a youth-focused group led by far-right activist Charlie Kirk — isn't just hoping to elect more Republicans to office. The group is specifically hoping to replace the public employees in charge with overseeing elections in hotly contested battleground states with MAGA acolytes.

The Guardian reported Saturday that Kirk's group, which is based in the swing state of Arizona, is aiming to raise $108 million in its campaign to "clean house" of election officials. TPUSA has already hired hundreds of employees in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin to supplant its "Chase the Vote" campaign infrastructure. Those three states' combined 37 electoral votes are notably what made the difference in President Joe Biden winning the Electoral College in 2020 by just over 42,000 total votes.

"[We] need to clean house in Maricopa county,” Arizona Republican state lawmaker Austin Smith recently tweeted, in reference to election officials in Arizona's most populous county. Biden's slim 2020 victory in Arizona was made possible in Maricopa County, where he won roughly 45,000 more votes than Trump. Biden only won the state by approximately 11,000 votes.

The $108 million figure may not be too ambitious of a goal for Kirk's group. According to the Guardian, TPUSA raised nearly $40 million in 2020, $55.8 million in 2021, and a whopping $80.6 million in the 2022 midterm election cycle. Its annual "Americafest" gathering in late 2023 garnered more than 20,000 attendees, and featured high-profile GOP figures as keynote speakers like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and former President Donald Trump's eldest son, Don Jr.

However, despite its fundraising prowess, TPUSA has a poor record of success. In 2022, it backed a host of losing candidates, like Arizona GOP senate candidate Blake Masters (who ended up losing to Democrat Mark Kelly), former TV news anchor Kari Lake — who lost the 2022 gubernatorial election to Democrat Katie Hobbs — and election denier Mark Finchem, who unsuccessfully ran for Arizona Secretary of State.

Kirk himself has also been the target of criticism, particularly earlier this year when he used Martin Luther King Jr. day to disparage the legendary civil rights activist and pastor. He said Dr. King was "awful" and declared that the passage of the Civil Rights Act — which famously desegregated public facilities — "a huge mistake." He's also baselessly asserted that the Covid-19 vaccine is poisonous and that Donald Trump was the true winner of the 2020 election.

The Guardian reported that TPUSA also has ties to the "fake elector" scheme that has ensnared GOP officials in multiple states in criminal investigations. Turning Points Action (TPUSA's campaign arm) chief operations officer Tyler Bowyer was one of 11 "fake electors" in Arizona who signed a document falsely stating themselves as the presidential electors for the Grand Canyon State in 2020. He and the 10 other fake electors are currently under investigation by the state's attorney general.

Click here to read the Guardian's report in full.