If Vice President JD Vance wants to assume the White House after President Donald Trump’s term, he is going to need to keep much of the coalition his boss has created.
Among them are young voters who have been a traditional bloc for Democrats, and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk warned Friday that the GOP could lose them if the party doesn’t start delivering real economic results.
“The biggest threat to the Republican Party in 2028 is if we do not deliver on our promises of [home] ownership for the next generation,” Kirk said to Fox News Digital at the Turning Point Student Action Summit in Tampa. “The youth vote didn’t just vote for Donald Trump. Young voters put Donald Trump in the White House.”
Kirk spoke about the future of the conservative movement, the growing shift among Gen Z voters, and why Big Tech is now suddenly trying to cozy up to the right.
He said younger voters are trending conservative, no doubt about it, and pointed to the damage done by the COVID pandemic as a major reason.
“There’s very low trust of institutions and the institutions have failed them,” Kirk said. “Primarily, if you’re 18, 19, 20, 21 right now, that kind of portion of Generation Z, they were lied to during COVID and so much of their livelihood and so much of what they care about, and they’re deeply passionate about was taken from them abruptly… So they’re a little bitter about that.”
Kirk also pointed to soaring prices and the open border under President Joe Biden as key reasons Gen Z is breaking with Democrats and aligning with Trump.
But he warned that if Republicans don’t step up with solutions, they could lose that momentum by 2028.
“If we don’t fix the home ownership problem in this country, the cost of living crisis, and if we don’t give the next generation [a chance] at being owners and not renters, we are going to see what I call ‘Mamdaniism’ spread across the country,” he said.
He was referring to Zohran Mamdani, the left-wing socialist who won the New York City Democratic primary for mayor by running on a radical agenda that included freezing rent, government-run grocery stores, free buses and childcare, a massive minimum wage hike, and huge tax increases on businesses.
“Mamdaniism is the radical element of the Democratic Party, which is bitterness, discontent, the mobilization of grievances,” Kirk said. “Where it is free stuff, populism weaponized against the American public.”
He said 2028 will come down to two paths — a country that celebrates ownership, pride, and patriotism, or one that follows the Mamdani model.
Kirk also credited voters under 30 as the “decisive element” in the 2024 election, saying they helped Trump win key swing states like Michigan and even narrowed the gap in Democratic strongholds.
“So we must deliver for this cohort. We must show them that their lives are tangibly better, or else in 2028, we’re going to be in a much more competitive race than I’d like to be,” he said.
Big Tech, according to Kirk, is now paying attention.
After years of censorship and tension, several Silicon Valley giants, including Meta, sponsored the conservative event in Tampa.
Kirk said he welcomes the change, adding he’s “thrilled” to see tech companies reconsider their relationship with conservatives and sees it as a smart move, especially with Turning Point and other influencers dominating online platforms.
“7,000 students, this is your target demo,” he said. “And secondly, we want to dominate on these platforms because, honestly, we already are. I mean, my personal Instagram, I think we’re upwards of almost 6.4 million followers. We get billions of impressions a year. You know, we’re very viral around TikTok.”
“I can’t speak for Mark Zuckerberg,” he added, “but we’re thrilled to have Meta, Rumble, and any other tech companies as well.”
