PHOENIX — Members of the MAGA faithful gathered here Thursday to kick off Turning Point USA’s America Fest, the largest meeting for the organization since its founder, Charlie Kirk, was shot to death on a Utah college campus in September.

Despite that somber backdrop, the event quickly devolved into a spectacle of MAGA infighting.

Ben Shapiro, the first speaker after widow Erika Kirk, ripped into those who would take the same stage in the coming hours and days. He called out conservative commentators, blasting Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Steve Bannon as “frauds and grifters.”

“The conservative movement is in serious danger,” Shapiro said, arguing the danger is not just on the left, but “from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty.”

He called Bannon “a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein” ahead of the imminent release of files related to the late convicted sex offender, while praising President Donald Trump and his administration's handling of the issue. Trump pushed to stop Republicans in Congress from voting to release the files, though he signed the legislation once it was passed. Both Bannon and Trump appear in photos with Epstein that were released by House Democrats.

Shapiro particularly focused on Carlson — both for elevating Owens’ conspiracy theories about Kirk's murder and for his recent interview with far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who has repeatedly pushed antisemitic tropes. Carlson, a former Fox News host, now hosts his show on X and routinely garners millions of views.

“The people who refused to condemn Candace’s truly vicious attacks — and some of them are speaking here tonight — are guilty of cowardice,” Shapiro said, adding later: “If you host a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse like Nick Fuentes … you ought to own it.”

Both the Fuentes interview and Owens’ conspiracies have embroiled the party in recent weeks. On Wednesday, Shapiro called on the Heritage Foundation, the powerful conservative think tank whose president defended the interview, to change its tune about Carlson’s elevation of Fuentes.

Carlson responded with heat of his own from the stage Thursday.

“That guy is pompous,” Carlson said, saying he “laughed” while watching clips of Shapiro's speech backstage. “Calls to deplatform at a Charlie Kirk event? That’s hilarious.”

Carlson went on to rail against cancel culture, and promised the crowd that he was not antisemitic. “Antisemitism is not just naughty, it’s immoral,” he said.

Erika Kirk addressed the MAGA movement’s fractures, while casting her late husband as a rare unifier and pleading with the crowd to embrace disagreement. “You won’t agree with everyone on this stage this weekend,” she said. “And that's okay. Welcome to America.”

The event wasn’t entirely heated. Actor Russell Brand — who spoke between Shapiro and Carlson — focused on Christianity, while sprinkling attacks on vaccines and the pharmaceutical industry into his remarks. And earlier in the day, attendees danced to upbeat music, repeatedly chanted “USA” and celebrated Trump’s return to the White House at the Phoenix Convention Center, which is plastered with imagery of Charlie Kirk. More than 30,000 people gathered for the event.

Kirk’s influence on young people was particularly evident, with thousands of high school and college attendees, some of whom posed for photos in front of a tent that resembled the one Kirk was speaking in front of when he was shot during “The American Comeback Tour.”

Erika Kirk — who now serves as Turning Point’s CEO — said 80 percent of attendees had never been to America Fest before, and one-third of them were students. More than 140,000 people have submitted requests to join the organization since Kirk’s death, bringing the membership to over 1 million people across 4,000 chapters at high schools and colleges, she added.

While the group has welcomed speakers from across the conservative movement, it made clear choices about which politicians to welcome to the stage, providing a glimpse into how the organization hopes to shape the future of the GOP. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and GOP Rep. Mike Collins, both candidates for Senate, and gubernatorial hopefuls Andy Biggs of Arizona and Byron Donalds of Florida, were given slots on the main stage.

Erika Kirk also made a point of promising to elevate Vice President JD Vance — who will close the event on Sunday — to the White House in 2028. Vance leads early polls of the likely GOP field.

“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” she said.

© Jon Cherry/AP

PHOENIX. Arizona — Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk has endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president, an early sign of influential support for a likely leading candidate in 2028.

Kirk, who took over leadership of Turning Point after her husband, Charlie, was killed in September, announced her decision during a speech Thursday at the organization’s America Fest conference in Phoenix.

Vance is scheduled to speak at the conference on Sunday.

“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” Kirk said.

Vance has not yet committed to running in 2028, but as vice president he is widely expected to seek the White House. TPUSA — founded by Charlie Kirk — holds major influence for the MAGA movement, particularly among young conservatives, and the early endorsement could give an early lead among the Republican hopefuls.

“My attitude is the American people elected me to be vice president,” Vance told the New York Post in October. “I’m going to work as hard as I can to make the president successful over the next three years and three months, and if we get to a point where something else is in the offer, let’s handle it then.”

Kirk made the endorsement in front of a crowd of thousands of people, many of whom are ardent supporters of President Donald Trump — and they responded with resounding applause.

Vance and Charlie Kirk were particularly close before Kirk's death.

© Jon Cherry/AP

Indiana state House Republicans have released a draft congressional map that would give the GOP an edge in all nine of the state’s congressional districts — potentially netting the party two seats in the Hoosier State — though the map’s passage is still far from certain.

The biggest changes in the proposed map come in the state’s two Democratic-leaning districts, held by Reps. Frank Mrvan and André Carson. Mapmakers split Marion County — home to Indianapolis — into four different districts, essentially diluting the Democrats' strength in the area.

While the map is in line with President Donald Trump’s request for a GOP sweep, it still faces a number of obstacles in order to pass.

State House Speaker Todd Huston has consistently said his caucus could pass the new map, and Speaker Mike Johnson huddled with lawmakers this weekend in what was described by one person briefed on the call as very "rah rah" ahead of them convening.

The map’s fate in the state Senate, where President Pro Tem Rodric Bray remains opposed, is still uncertain. The White House and other outside groups continue to ramp up pressure on lawmakers resistant to redistricting, and one even faced threats of a pipe bomb over the weekend.

Republicans who oppose redrawing have said its best to focus the GOP’s energy on flipping a district outright instead of changing the playing field.

“It seems like the public is talking about this in terms of a binary choice: either 7-2 or redistricting and get 9-0,” Bray told POLITICO last month, explaining his reluctance to take on a redraw. “That is not clear at all to me, because we don’t know who’s going to run.”

The draft map's release comes after months of back and forth between the White House and Indiana lawmakers, including two visits to the state from Vice President JD Vance.

The state House is expected to vote on the map this week, and the state Senate is meeting next week to weigh the version passed by the House. Turning Point USA, one of the GOP groups pushing for a new map, is planning a rally at the statehouse Friday.

If state lawmakers approve the map, Indiana would become the fourth GOP-led state to redraw ahead of the midterms. So far, Republicans have drawn districts that could net nine seats across Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri, though legal challenges remain.

A panel of federal judges blocked Texas’ gerrymander last month, but the Supreme Court has allowed it to stay in place for now as it continues to consider the case ahead of the state’s filing deadline next week.

Democrats have found redistricting success, too, through California’s Proposition 50 — which could capture the party five seats of their own — as well as a court-ordered redraw in Utah. Utah’s GOP-controlled legislature plans to appeal the court’s decision.

In Virginia, Democrats took their first steps to redraw and will continue the process early next year. Maryland and Illinois continue to face pressure from within the party to pursue their own gerrymanders, but similar dynamics to Indiana have left some state lawmakers unwilling to get on board.

Republicans still have their own potential states on the board. Florida is expected to start discussing the issue later this month, and Kansas and Kentucky could join in January. Other GOP efforts in Nebraska and New Hampshire have faltered.

© Darron Cummings/AP

A Utah judge on Monday rejected a Republican-passed redistricting plan that created two more-competitive districts in the state — a win for Democrats who thought the map did not go far enough.

In denying the new map, the judge put in place one of two options offered by plaintiffs that creates a solidly-Democratic district that covers Salt Lake City, giving the party its second win in the redistricting wars that have swept the nation ahead of the midterms.

In her ruling, issued minutes before a midnight deadline, Judge Dianna Gibson said the Republican map “fails to abide by and conform with the requirements” of a 2018 voter-approved ballot measure that created nonpartisan redistricting standards for the state Legislature.

In October, Republican state legislators passed the map the judge ultimately denied, which created two competitive districts that still favored Republicans.

The Utah case centers around a voter-approved measure against partisan gerrymandering in the state passed in 2018, one that Republicans are collecting signatures to undo.

Utah is just one piece in the broader redistricting puzzle. Already, Republicans have drawn nine favorable districts in four states, with others on the horizon. Democrats got their first win in the battle last week, when California voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that could net the party five more seats.

Several Utah Democrats are inching toward entering the race. Former Rep. Ben McAdams is expected to announce his candidacy soon, according to three people with direct knowledge of his thinking. He has already garnered support from Welcome PAC, a national group which backs more moderate candidates over progressives.

A Democrat has not represented Utah in Congress since 2021, when McAdams left office.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated the number of Utah Democrats who have served in Congress.

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© George Frey/AFP via Getty Images

Maine Gov. Janet Mills joined her state's crowded Democratic Senate primary as the establishment favorite on Tuesday, aiming to flip Republican Sen. Susan Collins' seat in a pivotal midterm year.

Democrats view the seat as one of their top pickup opportunities — the only in a state Kamala Harris won in 2024 — and Mills is among a few top-tier candidates Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer aggressively recruited to run this cycle. But first the term-limited governor must contend with a competitive primary against breakout candidate Graham Platner, an oyster farmer who announced he has more than $3 million in the bank and already received the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Maine Beer Company owner Dan Kleban is also running for the nomination and his fundraising figures will be made public Wednesday, when federal filings are released.

In her launch video, Mills highlighted her recent fight with President Donald Trump over transgender sports and accused Collins of enabling him. "I won't sit idly by while Maine people suffer and politicians like Susan Collins bend the knee as if this were normal," Mills said.

Despite initial hesitation, the governor started interviewing staff and telling local reporters she was seriously considering a bid last month.

She addressed that long contemplation in her announcement, saying in the video, "Honestly, if this president and this Congress were doing things that were even remotely acceptable, I wouldn't be running for the U.S. Senate."

The race sets up the latest generational clash for a party struggling to find its footing after losing the White House and both branches of Congress last year.

Mills, who won her seat by wide margins in her last two races, is 77 years old, making her five years Collins' senior at a time when Americans are grappling with debates about the age of their politicians. If elected, she would be the oldest first-year senator ever. Platner is 41 and unlikely to leave the race for Mills; Kleban, who is 48, has so far dodged questions about what he would do if Mills jumped in.

Democrats need to pick up four seats in order to win back control of the Senate, a difficult task that all but has to include a pickup in Maine, where Harris won by 7 points.

Democrats poured millions of dollars into an ultimately-unsuccessful effort to unseat Collins in 2020 — but her declining popularity in the bluing state is giving Democrats hope that next year’s race could be their best chance yet.

Republicans are eager to expose Mills' weaknesses, and have already targeted her public fight Trump, as well as her age.

© Robert F. Bukaty/AP