Turning Point USA Chapter President Resigns After Erika Kirk Took Over for Late Husband Charlie: 'Blatant Dishonesty'

Caroline Mattox, the former president of the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter at the University of Georgia, resigned following an embarrassing event on her Athens campus, publicly criticizing the organization's current leadership under Erika Kirk.

Mattox claimed that TPUSA had strayed from the original mission of its founder, Charlie Kirk — who was assassinated in September 2025 — and that the organization was now characterized by "blatant dishonesty" and a trajectory she no longer aligned with.

The conflict escalated following a sparsely attended TPUSA event at UGA on April 14 featuring Vice President J.D. Vance, which Erika skipped, citing what she claimed were security reasons. However, the Secret Service confirmed there were no issues.

MAGA influencer Candace Owens, who is engaged in a vitriolic feud with Erika, said the reason Charlie’s widow bailed was because of low turnout.

Candace has questioned the speed of Erika's appointment — just eight days after Charlie's death — and stated that the board should have appointed an interim CEO instead.

Candace has demanded TPUSA release video evidence of an Aspen retreat where Charlie allegedly expressed his wish for Erika to succeed him. She claimed donors told her an audio clip of this statement was "completely faked.”

Caroline took issue with TPUSA organizers blaming the low turnout on left-wing provocateurs allegedly "ghost-booking" free tickets — a claim she found absurd.

In her resignation letter, Caroline stated she witnessed TPUSA's "true direction" following Charlie’s death and expressed significant concerns that the current leadership was undermining the principles upon which the organization was built.

“While I am grateful for the experiences, lessons, and people this chapter brought me, I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to represent an organization that I believe has strayed so far from its original purpose and principles,” Caroline wrote.

Erika has faced similar internal backlash elsewhere; the TPUSA chapter at the University of Arkansas reportedly disbanded after her March visit.

“We are generally put off by how TPUSA has used Charlie Kirk since his assassination,” the chapter’s former president, Dino Fantegrossi, who renamed the group to Young American Revival, wrote in the statement, published a week after Erika spoke in Little Rock. “Statements like ‘Charlie would have said…’ and ‘Charlie would have wanted…’ have felt in many instances disingenuous and manipulative.”

“Charlie spent his life fighting for truth, and I do not believe he would stand for the blatant dishonesty now being spread by the organization that he built,” she continued.

Erika has been labeled an exploitative "grifter" by some critics, especially after she accidentally went viral for a "Freudian slip" during a December 2025 speech at AmericaFest, where she mistakenly used the word "grift" instead of "grit" while describing her late husband’s work