Turning Point Action supported slate of losing candidates in 2022 Arizona election

The Turning Point family of organizations, helmed by conservative personality Charlie Kirk, invested heavily in the 2022 election cycle in Arizona, aided by close to a half-million in cash. But the effort was futile.

Not one of their statewide Arizona picks managed to pass the ultimate hurdle and get elected to office.

Like many unapologetic supporters of former President Donald Trump, Kirk and his executive team were expecting a big return on their investments.

Turning Point PAC, the political action committee started by Turning Point USA, spent $494,105 during the 2022 election cycle, including the primary elections. The bulk of that, $377,201, went towards the general election races for U.S. Senate, governor and Secretary of State in Arizona.

Officials at Turning Point Action, worked hard to get their chosen candidates out of the crowded Republican primaries and were confident each would sail into office aided by money from Turning Point PAC.

But the Turning Point blessings turned out to be a curse for statewide Republican candidates.

The post-mortem on the election started soon after a batch of results was released from Maricopa County on Monday night that cemented the gubernatorial race.

Kirk had told his audience he was holding out hope that those votes would lift Republican Kari Lake, a former Phoenix television news anchor, over Democrat Katie Hobbs, the Arizona Secretary of State.

Related: Democratic group files IRS complaint against Turning Point USA over ties to Kari Lake's campaign

But, minutes after the results were released, a stern Kirk called the race and apologized to his viewers.

“The data was so clear,” he said. “I apologize if it came across that I misled you. The numbers were there and there were a lot of things that broke in ways that are inexplicable.”

Tyler Bowyer, the chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, said on the Kirk show Monday that the group succeeded in its mission of getting “actual conservatives” elected in the primaries.

“That was the plan. That was what we set out to do,” he said. Though, he said, that winning streak stopped in the general election. “The unfortunate thing here is moderates stayed home or didn’t vote for who we wanted them to vote for,” Bowyer said.

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'Turning Point showed its inexperience'

Kathy Petsas, a longtime Republican who had crossed political swords with Bowyer and the Turning Point wing of the party, said that the group promoted candidates that couldn't win a general election.

"These characters could only win at halftime," she said. "Turning Point showed its inexperience and inability to win the whole game."

Petsas said that many longtime Republicans like herself were insulted when Lake and people in the Turning Point universe denounced the late U.S. Sen John McCain and his supporters.

"When you're saying you’re not going to need my vote, I’m not going to give it to you," she said.

Petsas said that donors to Turning Point's political arms are likely reconsidering.

"They should run away from a group that has no return on the investment," Petsas said. "These people cannot deliver results."

Turning Point PAC successfully was involved with 16 candidates in the August Republican legislative races. It advocated defeat for two of them. Of the 14 candidates it supported, four lost in the November general election.

Outside of money, Turning Point Action, the advocacy arm of the parent non-profit, Turning Point USA, held a string of rallies in key legislative districts. Volunteers who showed up were handed materials provided by Turning Point PAC and sent out to knock on doors and engage voters.

And, though it did not advocate certain candidates, Turning Point USA, the parent non-profit, started its Turning Point Faith initiative in August 2021 that aimed at persuading Christians to become more civic-minded.

At monthly events held at a Phoenix megachurch, Kirk would speak about current events and cast political involvement as a spiritual duty to protect the nation from falling under the control of Satan. Excerpts of those events played as part of a half-hour radio show that began airing on dozens of Christian radio stations.

But those efforts could not halt the Democratic victories in Arizona, a state that will be represented by two Democratic U.S. Senators and a Democratic governor for the first time since 1950.

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Turning Point PAC had more success in national Congressional races, where it spent $72,662, according to federal election records.

It backed four successful candidates, including U.S. Senate candidates J.D. Vance in Ohio and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin. It also backed former football star Herschel Walker in Georgia who is heading into a December runoff for a U.S. Senate seat.

But its heaviest spending in Congress came for Karoline Leavitt, who lost her bid for a House seat in New Hampshire. Turning Point PAC spent more than $42,000 on that race, more than five times it spent on any other Congressional campaign.

In Arizona, Turning Point PAC spent $213,554 on the gubernatorial race between Lake, the former news anchor for KSAZ-TV, Channel 10, and Hobbs, the eventual winner, state campaign finance records show.

Most of that sum — $203,769 to be exact — was spent on a string of electronic billboards along freeways, records show. The billboards alternated between various messages in the weeks leading up to Election Day. One promoted Lake and Blake Masters, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, as a “Lake and Blake” ticket.

Another said that Hobbs discriminated against Black staff. It directed drivers to a website, www.dobetteraz.com, that detailed a successful federal lawsuit filed by an African-American staffer at the Arizona Senate claiming she wasn’t paid as much as her White and male counterparts.

Hobbs was declared the winner of the governor’s office on Monday by the Associated Press. She was the first Democrat elected governor since Janet Napolitano, who was first elected in 2002.

In this year’s Arizona Secretary of State race, Turning Point PAC spent $150,000 on texting and digital media. Democrat Adrian Fontes, a former Maricopa County Recorder, defeated the Republican candidate, state Rep. Mark Finchem.

That money was spent, according to campaign records, on Nov. 1, one week before Election Day.

Fontes won his race by more than 100,000 votes, according to unofficial results posted by the Arizona Secretary of State’s office.

Turning Point PAC spent $13,647 in the U.S. Senate race between Masters, a venture capitalist who looked to unseat Democrat U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly. Much of that was for printing campaign materials. In late August, Turning Point paid Victory Strategies $8,000 for producing an ad, records show.

During the primaries, Turning Point PAC spent $53,022 across 16 races. Some of that — $23,860 — targeted House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican not deemed conservative enough.

Bowyer, on the Kirk show on Monday, said that he had vowed to oust Bowers for, among other matters, killing what he considered sensible election reform measures.

Turning Point PAC paid $404,548 during the 2022 cycle to 1Ten, the advertising company run by state lawmaker Jake Hoffman, a former Turning Point spokesperson. That work included texting as well as digital media and advertising, records show.

Hoffman’s previous company, Rally Forge, was blocked by Facebook in October 2020 for posting misinformation and inflammatory posts under fake accounts ahead of the 2018 and 2020 elections.

Hoffman, along with Bowyer, was among the group of alternate electors who convened at Arizona Republican Party headquarters in December 2020 and falsely asserted themselves as the state's representatives in the Electoral College that formally votes for U.S. President. That scheme, which was designed to possibly pave the way for a second term for President Donald Trump, has come under investigation by federal authorities.

Kirk started Turning Point USA a decade ago with the aim of engaging college students and teaching them the value of the free market.

The non-profit exploded in popularity and donations in the era of President Donald Trump, who spoke at Turning Point events, along with a cavalcade of leading national Republicans.

Turning Point USA is organized under a section of the Internal Revenue Service code, 501(c)(3), that prohibits it from campaigning. Its advocacy arm, Turning Point Action, organized under section 501(c)(4), is allowed to campaign provided that such activity is not its primary function, according to IRS regulations. Turning Point PAC, organized as a political action committee, has no restrictions on spending and must disclose its donors in campaign finance filings.

According to its 2020 tax filing with the IRS, Turning Point USA took in $55 million in contributions.

Turning Point Action, the political advocacy group, took in $11.2 million that same year.

Keep reading: Turning Point Action events under scrutiny by Arizona Secretary of State over election law violations

Turning Point PAC has reported raising $490,007 as of Oct. 5, according to its filings with the Federal Elections Commission. According to Bowyer, the PAC has no staff. The work, Bowyer said, was done by himself and Kirk.

Kirk earned a salary of $405,416 as the CEO of Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action, the IRS filing shows. Bowyer earned $258,628 as the chief operating officer and chief secretary of the two Turning Point entities.

On the Charlie Kirk show that aired Monday night, Bowyer said that Lake perhaps relied too much on large Trump-style rallies and might have engaged in more small-scale retail politics, visiting sports fieldsfilled with parents on weekends or shaking hands in crowded restaurants.

Kirk said the election results didn’t mirror what he said was the enthusiasm on the ground.

Another guest, state Sen. Wendy Rogers said, “We wonder now if we were in an echo chamber.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Charlie Kirk's Turning Point group backed losing candidates in AZ