The Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter at the University of Nebraska at Omaha shared a statement today condemning TPUSA communications director Candace Owens and demanding that she be removed from her position with the organization. Since the statement posted, two additional TPUSA chapters—one at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and one at the University of Colorado Boulder—have signed on.
A press release posted on Twitter on February 21 condemns Owens’ inflammatory remarks about Adolf Hitler (Owens said the problem with Hitler was that “he had dreams outside of Germany”) and her criticisms of the #MeToo movement (which she claimed assumes women that are “stupid, weak & inconsequential”). TPUSA Omaha states that it “reached out to top employees at headquarters and within the National Organization” about Owens’ role at TPUSA, but did not receive “any substantial response.”
“Turning Point USA is above this thoughtless and divisive rhetoric, and as Chapters, Presidents, and Leaders of Turning Point USA, we will no longer stand idly by as they continue. We do not believe Candace Owens to be the most effective representation for Turning Point USA, as Communications Director or otherwise. We have seen many hard working activists and chapters across the United States dissociate with Turning Point USA simply because they can’t align themselves with the rhetoric and statements that have come out,” the statement reads.
We are a chapter of Turning Point USA and we stand by this statement. pic.twitter.com/UU0sQICaIH
— TPUSA_UNO (@TPUSA_Omaha) February 21, 2019
This isn’t the first time TPUSA chapters have had friction with the organization’s national leadership. A University of Iowa TPUSA chapter board threatened to resign last August over what was believed to be the organization’s exploitation of the murder of Mollie Tibbetts, whose suspected killer is believed to be an undocumented immigrant. Last year, Kaitlin Bennett stepped down as chapter president of Kent State University TPUSA chapter, citing a lack of national support after her chapter was ridiculed online for posing in diapers at a “safe space event” in 2017.
