New political organization comes to campus next semester
April 14, 2022
Free markets, limited government and the principles of freedom—This is what Turning Point USA is about, according to Marty Sandel. Sandel, a sophomore political science major, is the president of Turning Point USA at ULM. TPUSA is a national nonprofit on more than 3,000 campuses that educates students about fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government, according to their website.
While TPUSA is not yet an official RSO on ULM’s campus, it hopes to become one by next semester, according to Ethan Estis. Estis, a junior political science major, is the campus coordinator for TPUSA. He said the organization works to promote the morals and principles that the Founding Fathers believed in. “The Constitution, limited government, the power invested in the people—These are all values that our Founding Fathers instilled in this country, and that is what this organization stands for,” Estis said. Sandel said the mission of TPUSA is to identify, educate, train and organize students to promote these core values.
“Turning Point USA believes that every young per-
son can be enlightened to true free market values,” Sandel said. “I would love to be able to [show students] those values and the advantages of them and have civil conversations with people,” Sandel said.
Estis said that the interesting thing about TPUSA is that it’s not exclusively Republican or Democrat, although fiscally it leans conservative.
“Our members are tired of the two-party system,” Estis said. “They want to promote free individual thinking, they want to be able to have unbiased teachings in our educational institutions, and of course they want to be sure that our government is limited, and the power is invested in we the people.”
Executive members of the organization will travel to Tampa, Florida in July to attend the Student Action Summit. Estis said the conference will give members the guidance they need to come back to campus and promote their message.
“Once we come back in August 2022, we plan to hit the ground running like never before,” Estis said.
