Turning Point USA at Marshall University President Seeking ‘Middle Ground’

Founded by assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA focuses its energies largely on college students. This fall, Marshall University joined ranks with more than 900 college campuses now hosting Turning Point chapters.  

Mason County freshman Branson Tolliver is Marshall’s Turning Point USA chapter president. He spoke with reporter and Marshall University adjunct professor Randy Yohe on the workings and goals of this nationally growing student movement. 

This story has been lightly edited for clarity.

Yohe: Tell me how Turning Point USA at Marshall came to be.

Tolliver: I had been working on getting it started for a long time now, probably since July or early August. And so there was a field rep that was coming to a bunch of colleges that’s in the region, and she was actually here the day that Charlie Kirk got assassinated, and she was actually talking to a bunch of people that were wanting to get involved. My buddy, he’s actually the treasurer now, but my buddy was telling her that, “Hey, I got a friend that’s really wanting to get this going, and he’s been working really hard on it.” And so about a week later, I got a phone call, and we signed the papers and did all this stuff that’s required.

Yohe: Give me an idea of what the basic platform is for your organization.

Tolliver: We are a political organization, but we are a 501(c)(3), I believe, a nonprofit. Under that, we’re not allowed to endorse any political candidates or swing a certain way in political parties. So that’s kind of a misconception that we get. But as far as we’re concerned, we’re kind of on the right side of like conservative values, we’re just not allowed to endorse parties and candidates.

Yohe: When it comes to conservative values, what is a summary of your priorities? I see on your website, you talk about freedom, free markets and limited government on campus. Tell me what are the challenges, if any, at Marshall, when it comes to those three aspects.

Tolliver: As far as like the campus goes, that is just like the national organization. So we go out and talk to people on campus, we promote, really three main topics. It’s free speech on campus, because that’s a big thing. We’re seeing that not everyone can say what they want because two sides are butting heads a lot. As far as the other two goes, we’re more national. We want limited government so people can have more freedoms. And we want free markets or capitalism so people, like hard working people, can strive and get rewarded for their hard work.

Yohe: Tell me about, first of all, free speech on campus. In what way are there challenges to free speech?

Tolliver: I don’t know if it’s like, systemically, but as far as professors, they seem to lean a little bit more like left or in the middle. And it’s not as far as like, you can’t say what you want, you might be a little cornered. We just want more like-minded people to stand up for what we have.

Yohe: I saw that in some places, that Turning Point has a professor watch list. Are you involved in something like that here at Marshall? 

Tolliver: I’m not. I haven’t been keeping up with that, so I’m not sure if there’s anyone from here on there, but I’m not familiar with that.

Yohe: What does one do as a member of Turning Point here at Marshall to try to stem any problems with somebody that’s not being fair when it comes to teaching classes on campus?

Tolliver: I mean, we don’t stand up and say “Hey, I don’t like you’re not teaching right,” or whatever. We’re just kind of like, “Hey, we’ve got this question.” And we just bring stuff to the table. We’re not like debating or arguing. We’re just trying to get the other side’s stuff. 

Yohe: Then when it comes to limited government, you’re talking about limited government when it comes to state, local and federal, not necessarily campus government, right? 

Tolliver: Yes, sir. 

Yohe: In what way? What are some things that we see that should have limitations when it comes to our government?

Tolliver: Back in 2020, in the big mask mandate, we’re seeing that maybe that wasn’t as helpful as people might have thought. So we’re just thinking that maybe masks are just one good example of just like, maybe not imposing our rights. We should have the right to not wear one if we don’t want to. 

Yohe: Fiscal responsibility is a national platform issue for Turning Point. Is that a concern for students on campus as well?

Tolliver: We’re just promoting that we want people to be successful, however they can do that. We want hard working people, and we just don’t want a country full of people that’s just not working. We want a country of hard workers. We want the country to be revived. We want the Workers of America to be back.

Yohe: Tell me about your organization. I understand it’s grown really quick.

Tolliver: I think we’re two or three followers away from 3,000 followers on Facebook. So that was pretty crazy to us. Our Instagram is probably 1,500 to 1,600. I said we have a group chat thread for all the members on Group Me, I think it’s up to like 200, something around there, and I believe on Herd Link, the organization website here, we’re up to like 60 or 70 members. So we’re seeing a lot of growth.

Yohe: Is your organization diverse?  Are there diverse members of the public within Turning Point USA at MU?

Tolliver: Yes, we want everyone and all people to join. It’s not a political party. It’s not like endorsing candidates. We have values, and we want people there to share values. We’’re not  discriminating on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or anything. We want more people than we can think of.

Yohe: How would you define conservative values these days? In 2025 there’s definitely some polarization.

Tolliver: Yes, there definitely is. There’s a small group of people that think they might be conservative, but they’re a little more far right than most of us are. And I’ve noticed that more like independent or moderate voters used to swing a little bit left. But now we’re seeing since all that craziness and the stuff was happening with Charlie, we’re seeing them lean a little bit more right, or more conservative.

Yohe: Give me an idea of some conservative values.

Tolliver: So we’re like you mentioned before. We’re fiscal responsibility, limited government and free speech. And right now, I’m focusing on free speech. When I took the position of president here at Turning Point, I wanted to bridge the gap, because we’re seeing that maybe both sides are kind of dehumanizing each other and not seeing like we’re actually all humans. So I want to bridge the gap. Maybe we don’t all agree with each other, but we need to understand where everyone comes from. And I think when we start to understand where everyone comes from, that’s when we can start being more unified.

Yohe: So you would be glad to have debates and discussions and repartee with folks that say that they’re liberal. It would be good to open that up and have a good talk about it?

Tolliver: Yes, of course. We have been out on campus tabling for like, I think, the last couple weeks, and we’ve had some really great conversations. I know I’ve had a couple people that have said that they were liberal, came up and they had some great points, and I gave them some great points of mine, and we found a common ground. And I think that if we can get more of that around the country and just see that it’s not the polar right and polar opposite, and I think that would be really great. I was actually talking to someone, and he said, “Just think of it. You’re in a kayak, you row too far right, you go in a circle. You row too far left, you go in a circle.” So we need a little bit of unity here. 

Yohe: What are your thoughts over the last year or so where we’ve changed DEI on campus? We’ve rebranded, things have become more generic. Does Turning Point have a thought or a stance on that?

Tolliver: As far as I know of, they don’t. So I’m not able to answer on their behalf. So I’m not sure if they have a stance on that. 

Yohe:What are your thoughts? 

Tolliver: I think that people should be hired on merit. Like I mentioned before, in capitalism, we want hardworking people to get rewarded. So I think it starts with hiring on merit.

Yohe: How about faith-based? Where does that stand with Turning Point USA at Marshall University?

Tolliver: One of the things we stand for is Christianity. And I know that there are a couple of very, very intelligent faith believers, and they’ll answer any question you got.

Yohe: You guys are still in the beginning stages of organization. What are the goals and hopes for Turning Point USA at Marshall University, what is it that you really want to accomplish?

Tolliver: I’m just a freshman, so my end goal for this is to bring unity back to campus. We need to understand that both sides are humans. We need to bridge the gap, because everyone comes from different places. Everyone has different convictions and beliefs. So that’s my end goal.