Young progressives pushed back Wednesday against the governor’s endorsement of the radical right-wing student group Turning Point USA and what they say is growing state tampering in students’ political life. 

Turning Point USA President Erika Kirk dropped into Little Rock to announce a vague partnership between the state of Arkansas and the conservative club, which was founded by her husband, the late influencer Charlie Kirk. Kirk was assassinated in September, and his death launched ideological skirmishes between Kirk’s staunchly conservative supporters and critics who admitted publicly that they were not necessarily sad to see him go. 

The governor promised to help expand Turning Point USA’s Club America chapters on Arkansas’s high school and college campuses to engage in “civil, civic discourse.” 

An hour before Erika Kirk’s appearance at the Governor’s Mansion, Arkansas Young Democrats held their own presser to announce that their group is also expanding. The difference, they said, is that students, not the government or an out-of-state group, initiate these new chapters. 

From left to right: Aliah Rowe, Billy Cook and Zayd Kelley spoke at Arkansas Young Democrats’ presser. Credit: Austin Gelder

“We respect the rights of students to organize, regardless of what political party they’re organizing for. When someone uses their state power and resources, however, to try and unfairly influence our students, we will stand up and speak out loudly about that overreach,” Arkansas Young Democrats President Billy Cook said.

Zayd Kelley, chair of the College Democrats of Arkansa, also cried foul over what he said was the governor’s embrace of conservative students’ political engagement so soon after she passed the Arkansas ACCESS Act, legislation that regulates students’ political activities. Sanders and her fellow Republicans passed the ACCESS Act as part of an ongoing push against what they say is “woke,” left-wing indoctrination in schools. “It is unbelievably ironic to stand before you now in opposition to her attempt to force partisan, ideological political clubs into high schools and colleges across our state. Give me a break,” Kelley said. 

As the Young Democrats of Arkansas put on a press conference at the state party headquarters near the Capitol, a small crowd gathered for a protest outside the Governor’s Mansion. Co-organized by the College Democrats of Arkansas, the Young Democrats of Arkansas and the Arkansas High School Democrats, the demonstration drew roughly 75 people, most of them young, who chanted “No Trump, no KKK, no TP USA,” while holding signs that read, “TPA equals grooming,” and “No state-sanctioned propaganda clubs!” 

Protesters gather near the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion March 11, 2026, as Turning Point USA leader Erika Kirk and Sarah Sanders announce a push to put the conservative youth group on more campuses. Credit: Brian Chilson

As Bad Bunny’s halftime show subversively oontzed from a nearby home, a supporter kept the mood light by blowing giant bubbles. Conservative looky-loos wearing American flag T-shirts and sporting Mormon wife curls stood across the street and by the gates, hoping to get a glimpse of Kirk. 

Students like Xeno Jones, a 20-year-old Philander Smith University student and president of the campus NAACP chapter, are dubious that Turning Point USA can encourage civil discourse while promoting politics they see aimed at excluding people. Charlie Kirk espoused racist and anti-LGBT beliefs, and his wife, Erika Kirk, pushes a deferential role for women and caters to the belief that young white men are disenfranchised. 

“It’s frightening to hear that the governor is starting to push a very conservative and traditional and Republican standard in our schools to our children,” Jones said. “What does that do for our children’s self-esteem? What does that mean for children who don’t live the way that they’re quote-unquote supposed to under the TP USA agenda?”

Blanche Finzer, 19, part of the Young Democrats at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, helped rally the crowd at the protest, wielding a bullhorn and leading encouraging chants. Finzer said Turning Point USA is divisive wherever it goes, pointing to high school students in Fort Smith who recently protested the establishment of a Turning Point USA chapter there. 

Finzer also said the establishment of new political groups should be left up to students themselves. “It’s just kind of wrong to infringe upon students’ abilities to choose what they want to learn and choose what political affiliation they want to align with,” she said. 

Protesters gather near the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion March 11, 2026, as Turning Point USA leader Erika Kirk and Sarah Sanders announce a push to put the conservative youth group on more campuses. Credit: Brian Chilson

While Turning Point USA groups now have the governor’s green light, members of the Young Democrats report that liberal groups are being scrutinized on campus. At the press conference at Democratic Party headquarters, Cook said he and other students at Gravette High School got some pushback years ago when they launched a Young Democrats chapter and were called to the superintendent’s office. “We don’t have any help from the state, and we certainly don’t have millions of dollars coming in from Turning Point USA,” Cook said. 

The governor issued a proclamation in support of more Turning Point USA clubs, but stopped short of officially partnering with the Arizona-based group. It’s unclear what difference the proclamation will make in Arkansas schools.

But protesters at the Governor’s Mansion Wednesday said Sanders’ encouragement of Turning Point USA chapters sent a clear message about what kind of political speech the governor values. 

Chance Bradford, 19, the vice-chair of the Young Democrats of Arkansas’s Black Caucus and a representative of the NAACP at Philander State University, said that whether it’s an official partnership or not, the governor is overstepping by using her influence to shape political speech on campuses.

“Obviously, that’s a leadership figure, and that’s soft power that you’re exuding on people,” Bradford said. “It’s influence. It’s peer pressure. It’s crazy.”Though the protest was otherwise peaceful, it’s worth noting that a fight broke out between what looked to be a conservative attendee and a protester as supporters leaving the announcement walked out of the Governor’s Mansion grounds, according to footage shared Arkansas Times reader Sandy Snow Stevens. Details about those involved and any subsequent arrests are still taking shape, but you can watch the video below: