Monday, Oct. 20, College of William and Mary students gathered in the lobby of Chancellor’s Hall to protest the new Turning Point USA chapter ahead of its interest meeting. Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination Sept. 10, Turning Point reported a rise in student involvement nationally, with new chapters opening at schools across the country.
The protestors stood silently beside the entrance to the interest meeting, holding up signs with quotes from Charlie Kirk, who co-founded TPUSA with Bill Montgomery in 2012.
Grace Carryer ’27 participated in the protest outside of the TPUSA interest meeting. She held a posterboard that read “WE DON’T TOLERATE HATE HERE,” and explained why she decided to participate.
“Turning Point USA represents a lot of hateful ideas and ideologies, and we want to make sure that marginalized communities on campus feel safe here,” Carryer said. “Part of doing that is making groups that perpetuate [these ideas] feel uncomfortable existing here.”
Carryer explained the signs that the protestors brought.
“We brought quotes that Charlie Kirk has said, mostly on his own show, just to point to some of the hate that some of the modes of repression that he contributed to,” Carryer said. “We have quotes on racism, transphobia, Islamaphobia, sexism and misogyny.”
Carryer elaborated that the strategy of the protest was to peacefully demonstrate what they felt were the flaws of TPUSA’s ideology.
“We are not trying to make people feel unsafe, and that’s why we’re not being loud or inciting any sort of violence,” Carryer said. “Really, we’re trying to meet students with the ideology that they’re perpetuating and make sure that they understand what being a part of the club means to other students here.”
As the protestors stood outside before the meeting, Young Republicans President and Chairman of the Virginia College Republicans Philip Vayntrub ’27 recorded a video with his cell phone confronting the protestors, which he posted on the Virginia College Republicans’ X account.
Vayntrub denounced the protestors and asked if they condemned attorney general candidate Jay Jones ’10, referencing unearthed text messages from Jones that depict violence against the former 57th Republican Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, Todd Gilbert and his family. Jones has since apologized for those messages.
“Do any of you denounce Jay Jones?” Vayntrub said.
As of Oct. 20 at 11:15 p.m., Vayntrub’s X post has 156.8 thousand views, 9.3 thousand likes, 339 comments and 2.1 thousand reposts.
William and Mary Police Department officers stood outside the classroom before the meeting.
During the interest meeting, Olivia Keller ’28 led the discussion and began by discussing the goal behind opening a new TPUSA’s chapter at the College.
“Our mission is to defend and promote conservative values and to challenge the narrative and stop brainwashing through open dialogue,” Keller said.
Keller went on to talk about future planning for the club, sharing some of Kirk’s quotes and Bible verses. He then handed the floor to Kevin Lincoln, who attended the meeting on behalf of TPUSA’s national chapter and currently serves as a USA Field Representative for the Old Dominion territory.
Lincoln mentioned possible collaborations with the chapter, including with the Virginia Delegate of the 62nd district, Nick Freitas.
Lincoln, mentioning the late Kirk, described what he saw as the goal of this new chapter.
“At the core, what Charlie wanted to do is to cultivate and capture the hearts and minds of young people, right?” he said. “So that’s our goal. That’s our mission.”
Lincoln also addressed the outside protestors, noting that he hopes they will be able to draw in new attendees.
“I genuinely hope, I really hope, and pray that some of those students of the Socialist Club, or whatever they are, that they come and join us, right?” he said. “Because we’re not exclusive. That’s very important.”
Lincoln continued with his thoughts on the protestors.
“You want to bring people in — we don’t want to push people away,” he said. “We don’t want to scare them away. We’ll let them do that themselves.”
After the meeting, Kirby Lino ’29, who attended the interest meeting, mentioned how his life experiences brought him into conservative political leanings.
“I grew up in a very liberal area with the only conservative family, so I kind of had to become a very political person to defend what my family believed in, and then I came to believe it in my own right for my own reasons,” he said.
Lino mentioned that what he appreciated about Kirk was how, in Lino’s mind, he sought to break down barriers that would usually exist in spaces otherwise hostile to conservative views, such as on college campuses.
“That [hostility] happens in a lot of places, especially these college campuses,” he said. “Charlie was trying to, at the very least, break down that barrier so that even if people disagree, they could talk about their disagreements in a civilized manner.”
Lino explained how he hopes other people, even when he might be expressing opinions that they would disagree with, will also extend him civility.
“That’s what I always say to people about Charlie or my beliefs, you don’t have to agree with me,” he said. “Just understand that I’m not evil.”
CORRECTION (10/23/2025): Article was updated by the Standards & Practices Editor to correct the spelling of Todd Gilbert’s name.
