<p>NASHVILLE—Nearly 100 students, bright-eyed and hungry for change, gathered at the Tennessee State Capitol Building Friday morning, some having driven all night to make it to the event.</p>
<p>There, in a room full of young conservatives, a group of Tennessee officials, including Senator Marsha Blackburn (R), announced a partnership with Turning Point USA. Soon, every high school in the state will have a chapter of Club America, TPUSA&#8217;s high school affiliate.</p>
<p>Club America, like all of TPUSA, aims to advance the mission of the group&#8217;s late founder, Charlie Kirk: make being a conservative cool.</p>
<p>&#8220;The founding of the country, the Constitution, capitalism,&#8221; TPUSA Senior Director Josh Thifault told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The branding is meant to feel like it&#8217;s something that everybody wants to be part of because I mean, who doesn&#8217;t want to be part of Club America? We wanted to create a presentation to high schools that would be very tough to say no to.&#8221;</p>
<p>Blackburn was joined by women&#8217;s sports activist Riley Gaines and Tennessee Senator Jack Johnson for the announcement. The Volunteer State joins Texas and Florida, which have also taken steps to launch Club America chapters throughout their states.</p>
<p>One of the last in-depth conversations Thifault had with Kirk before the latter was assassinated in September was about expanding Club America. Thifault said with Republican states fully backing the mission, TPUSA can get to Kirk&#8217;s goal of 20,000 chapters.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very thankful for all the commitments that Tennessee made,&#8221; he said Friday. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of wonderful people who worked a lot to make this happen. Also, I have to give special credit to Riley Gaines because she&#8217;s the one who, as soon as it became pretty clear we were working something out, shouted it from the rooftops.&#8221;</p>
<p>Gaines spent nearly an hour after the partnership was announced taking pictures with the students who traveled to Nashville for the event. The former Kentucky swimmer and new mom challenged the students to bring five friends to a Club America event and keep the movement growing.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think we&#8217;ve now understood that Tennessee, especially with the recent congressional race here in this district, is not immune,&#8221; Gaines said. &#8220;I think so many of us almost develop a sense of complacency because we think it can&#8217;t happen to me. Nobody is immune to the cultural chaos that is plaguing this nation and even plaguing this state.&#8221;</p>
<div id="attachment_1014301" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1014301" class="size-large wp-image-1014301" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Untitled-design-31-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Untitled-design-31-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Untitled-design-31-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Untitled-design-31-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Untitled-design-31.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1014301" class="wp-caption-text">Credit: Anna Katherine White</p></div>
<p>One of the students who drove hours to be at the State Capitol on Friday was Riley Belt. The junior out of Providence Christian in Johnson City said Tennessee&#8217;s partnership with TPUSA makes her excited for her peers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our generation is definitely a turning point,&#8221; Belt said. &#8220;We just want to be able to help teach kids like us how to help change our nation and lead us back to conservative values and back to Christ. That&#8217;s what it&#8217;s all about.&#8221;</p>
<p>Since Kirk&#8217;s assassination, Club America chapters in Tennessee have grown from 30 to 104. Belt helped start her school&#8217;s chapter in November. Because of the pact formed Friday, that number is only expected to grow.</p>
<p>&#8220;One person can&#8217;t do it on their own, but we&#8217;re surrounded by people who also share these values and want to make America what Charlie wanted it to be,&#8221; Belt said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re fighting for.&#8221;</p>

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Tennessee And Turning Point USA Team Up To Start Chapters At Every High School

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Tennessee And Turning Point USA Team Up To Start Chapters At Every High School