Why Candace Owens Is Becoming Bigger Than MAGA and TPUSA Is Freaking Out
Candace Owens’ unfiltered, bold style—public debates and clashing with allies—draws millions, outpacing Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) donor-driven, bureaucratic branding under Erica Kirk. Her authenticity resonates with disaffected youth, bypassing MAGA’s hollow slogans, while TPUSA’s reliance on infrastructure feels outdated in the digital age. Owens’ influence mirrors past rebellions like the Tea Party, reshaping politics beyond traditional conservative media. Critics dismiss her as straying from conservative roots, but she rejects labels, adapting views to facts—even on child exploitation and trafficking, where online risks demand urgent action. [Automatically generated summary]
The other day a friend of mine in the biz asked me, and maybe you get this too, I don't know.
He asked me, are you still talking about Candace Owens?
I said, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He said, well, how long are you going to talk about Candace Owens?
I said, well, do you think this is about Candace Owens?
It's just about her.
Is that what you think it is?
He said, well, yeah.
I said, oh, I see.
I see.
Well, what would you like to talk about?
I said, well, should you talk more about what's going on in Minnesota?
I said, well, that's very important.
I said, let me ask you something.
I said, can you tell me how what is happening in Minnesota, which is very important, and elsewhere around the world, will affect this country for the next 25 years?
Can you?
He said, well, I said, it's very important.
ICE and replacement, you know, all these theories.
Very important.
I said, let me explain something to you right now.
I said, what you are seeing is something that has not been this significant since the early 70s, late 60s, with the Southern strategy.
And I'm not trying to make a comparison between Strom Thurmond and Candace Owens, but she is the beginning of a new wave of political involvement, specifically of disenfranchised young people and also other age groups who never really felt a part of, you know, MAGA per se or Republicans or certainly not,
I don't think liberals are progressives, but maybe.
But she has hit a nerve.
She has hit something.
And I don't care why.
Is it because of her candor?
Is it because of her America First program?
Is it because of her Middle East theories?
I don't know.
I think it's a combination of everything.
I said, but if you don't understand what's happening, I said, let me go a step further.
He was taken aback.
I said, she is going to replace MAGA.
MAGA is this kind of generic reference to people who are pro-Trump.
It's very powerful, to be sure, but it's not, it's, I think it's used too much.
I think it's used too frequently to explain what is considered to be Republican.
Candace Owens is not Republican.
This is what I have been looking for for the longest time because we've been trying to, I'm suggesting, that the days of left-right politics are over.
Left-right politics are over.
Parties are over.
People don't understand.
This doesn't make any sense.
Yeah, if you were raised on it, I guess so, but not really.
What Trump brought to the fore, whether you like Trump or not, was that he defied traditional conventional historic rules regarding Democrats and Republicans.
He did something.
He hit a nerve.
And Candace has hit a nerve.
And what she's done is, because of this story, because Charlie Kirk meant so much to so many people, because she's been trying to adjudicate the correct history of his legacy, people have been brought forward.
And what they are saying right now is they're looking at her and they're saying, you know, we like her authenticity.
We like her honesty, and we like her.
And that's it.
They're actually doing what, in many respects, a lot of people felt regarding Trump.
They like her.
They like her.
They like what she's saying.
So let me just tell you something.
She is picking up millions, okay?
Millions of people who are attracted by her candor, her authenticity, her reality, her forthrightness, her brilliance, her delivery, whatever you want to call it.
And then when she gets all these people and she says, hey, folks, members of Candace's army or whatever you want to call this particular group, if she says, you know, I think this is the way, I think this candidate, I think this movement, I think this issue, I think this piece of legislation, do you know the power she has?
You know the power, what that means, and what that can affect.
So let me just say something to you.
If you think this is about just Candace or some story involving Erica Kirk, you're missing the point.
Yeah, that might have brought you to the dance, so to speak.
But what's going to keep you here is all of this kind of a newfound sense of a commitment to something where people never felt a part of anything before, but now they feel they feel connected to this.
Now, let me just explain a couple of things to you.
Maybe you can.
I hope you agree with me.
In fact, please, in the comments, I trust you will disagree if possible.
Candace Owens is winning right now because she's not just building an audience, she's building belief.
And that is the difference between temporary popularity and long-term power.
Because people do not rally around hashtags forever.
They rally around ideas that make them feel awake and motivated and committed and connected to something bigger than themselves.
And that is exactly and precisely what Candace is doing while Turning Point USA under Erica Kirk keeps drifting deeper and deeper into the world of this weird branding and donor dinners and controlled messaging and these weird, let's make heaven crowded or whatever these things are.
I mean, I don't know.
And this, she's also getting weirder and weirder in her presentation.
And these supposedly safe controversies don't work.
And this contrast between a very real and believable and honest Candace sitting in front of her, you know, camera compared to these productions, these kind of like Gloria Swanson.
I don't want to say Busby Berkeley, but these processions where I think somebody probably told Erica, look, as long as this makes you look great, people will love it.
No, not necessarily.
And by the way, this contrast feels even sharper when you remember, remember the Tea Party wave of 2009?
Remember that we have different ways.
Remember the Make America Great?
No, no, no, the, oh, God.
During Newt Gingrich, what the hell was the name of that?
He always walked over those 10 points.
You know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, but the Tea Party wave of like 2009, 2010, remember when American or when regular Americans flooded town halls and rejected party bosses and pushed back against endless debt and fake leadership and demanded real accountability and all that.
It's very similar because Candace sounds just like that.
Just like that same rebellious energy while TP USA increasingly looks the very type of polished nonprofit machine that the Tea Party originally rebelled against.
See, they don't even get it.
They don't even know their history.
They don't even get their history.
And high school students who grew up on social media understand this instantly because they can spot performance versus authenticity in seconds.
And Candace speaks directly.
I can't say this enough.
Argues aggressively, challenges both parties, is fearless, calls out hypocrisy, and refuses to soften her message just to stay comfortable.
While TPUSA often feels like it's trying to manage a movement instead of unleashing one.
You know, hosting these impressive conferences that look good on Instagram, but feel hollow and disconnected from everyday frustrations.
By the way, the Republicans do this thing too.
Remember the CPU, CPAC, and all these groups that figured they just want to make money.
Have you ever seen CPAC?
Hey, you want to go to that?
No.
Want to be a part of it?
You want to get the Ronald Reagan Silver Club for $25 million or whatever it is.
You can have breakfast and you can hear Janine Pirro, fine person, but I'm saying they'll throw a name at you.
And I'm thinking, excuse me, I want to know direction.
These are great people, but I'm not into it.
This isn't a fan club.
I want to know about direction policy.
Stop repeating slogans that sound bold but rarely turn into anything serious.
We want confrontations with power.
And we want, stop leaning on branding instead of building organic loyalty.
This is again why Candace's audience keeps growing faster and her clips spread wider.
Her engagement feels more real.
You've seen this.
And this is why her supporters defend her without being asked, while TPUSA relies more on promotion and partnerships and threats.
Think about that.
And institutional support to maintain their attention.
And the deeper issue is that TPUSA was built on Charlie Kirk's personality and momentum.
And after his death, which I'm still not sure what exactly happened, the organization didn't reinvent itself.
It froze.
It tried to preserve an image.
They were so worried about losing the money and losing the donors instead of creating new leadership energy and realizing that Erica Kirk could not handle it.
And when she stepped into the spotlight, or when they recruited her, when she claims Charlie always said, I want you to do this.
Okay.
It's interesting too how sometimes Charlie would say, I think women should stay at home and raise their family.
Okay.
That was interesting.
Except for you, Erica.
You're different.
Okay.
I'll let you do the math on that one.
But when she stepped into the spotlight, the emotional connection disappeared immediately.
You could feel it.
You realize, oh, huh.
She was always there.
I mean, as much as people might love, I'm trying to think of an example of somebody who's, you know, President Trump or Melania or there's only no way, you know, Truman and Bess Truman.
I'm trying to think of Obama and Michelle.
See, the spouse is a very unique thing.
The spouse, you realize you recognize, okay, this is your spouse, and we love you derivatively through the person that we care for, but you're not the reason why we're here.
Thank you for your help and thank you for your assistance, but you're not the reason.
Okay.
And the thing I'm saying, this is not about cruelty or about Erica, but leadership in the media age requires presence and confidence and the ability to command attention.
And right now, right now, Erica Kirk does not project that authority on camera.
Her delivery feels rehearsed and cold and plastic and fake and mean.
Her tone is shrill.
It feels distance.
And her appearances lack the emotional spark that young audiences respond to.
Remember, always think young.
Why do I say that?
Why do I say that?
Not because young people are cool, because they get to be old.
You build the audience.
You always think 10, 15, 25 years in advance.
Every leader, good or bad, has always looked to youth because they don't always stay youth.
This is axiomatic.
Everybody knows that.
I mean, Erica is like every, you know what I found myself, you maybe do the same thing, and I'm not proud of this, but I can't wait to see what she does next is to see how bad she's going to blow it.
And while Candace brings intensity and humor and anger, appropriate anger, and conviction, the same emotional fuel that powered the Tea Party movement and others as well, when people were tired of polite conservatism that lost every cultural battle, and this emotional authenticity matters.
It matters more than polished professionalism, whatever that means, because the internet rewards personality, not hierarchy.
Rallies And Emotional Fuel00:03:11
It loves voice, not logos and trademarks and flash and drumrolls and sparklers.
Have you ever seen a rally?
I use this by comparison without any disrespect to Scientology because I don't know anything about it.
But remember when they have these incredible events where Tom Cruise would show up or not Travolta, but Tom Cruise.
And it was like you would look at it and say, what is this?
Because you didn't understand it.
You know, Miss Cavidge or whatever his name is.
And it's incredible.
My God, they're like rallies.
They're almost like it's different.
And when certain things get too, too big, they lose their sight.
Billy Graham, no matter how big his audience, he never, it was Billy Graham.
It was it.
Medal of music, but it was always Billy Graham.
There were some people who can just do it.
Trump, during his rallies, would do it, whether you like him or not.
His rallies were incredible.
Something happens, though.
Something happens when TPUSA does something.
It's so, it doesn't work.
It just doesn't connect.
I can't say this enough because today, if you can't connect on social media, that's it.
And you think that they're still thinking this is like the hot, like this is the Academy Awards.
You know, Academy Awards programs.
Nobody cares about them.
Awards programs, don't kid you.
Nobody cares about that.
They mean nothing.
But the people who run it still think they do.
See, Candace understands this battlefield.
While TPUSA still behaves like some traditional organization that believes its structure is influence or something, and this gap keeps widening because Candace moves fast, responds directly, creates viral moments, and speaks plainly in a way that kids, high school students, college can understand without political translators.
And TPUSA apparently moves, of course, cautiously, filter statements.
In some cases, as you know, not good PR, threatening, instinctive threatening people with litigation who dare to speak up against it, either prior employees, even Candace.
I mean, you cannot be any more tone deaf in terms of PR than they are.
This is incredible.
They avoid topics that might upset donors.
They prioritize image control over raw honesty.
Remember, the donors are great, but it's the younger people who are going to fill in the seats.
It's that influence.
What is the purpose of a donor if there's no audience for that money to be directed?
Remember Republicans First00:02:11
I mean, you can have all the donors you want, but if your message is flat.
See, years ago, this is important to understand this.
And again, I don't want to use these terms like conservative and all this, but I'm going to do my best.
There was a time in this country when, I mentioned the Southern Strategy.
A bad example, but the principle's here.
Towards the end of the 60s, when after civil rights, after civil rights improvements and the like, a lot of southern Dixiecrats, remember who the Klan was.
Remember who the hardcore was, George Wallace and all these people.
These people were like Democrats.
It was a different story.
Remember the Republicans were the first, remember the Republicans in their first national convention, 1856, I believe in Philadelphia.
Their position was, they said, they called it the twin pillars of barbarism, polygamy and slavery.
Republicans were anti-slavery.
They were the Lincolns, and it was a different time.
But anyway, what happened was a lot of the Dixiecrats felt completely lost by the Johnsons and others, and they felt lost post-civil rights.
They didn't, they, and again, I'm not arguing why this is good or bad.
What I'm saying is they felt that their South was being lost, that their values were being completely muddled, if not bulldozed.
They needed somebody to help.
So Nixon and others reached out, Republicans, and said, listen, why don't you come to our side?
We're more of your theory or your particular ideology than the Democrats are.
Come to our side.
Okay, so they brought all those people over.
Then later on, the Second Amendment people, you know, we don't really, come on in.
The tent got real big.
The constitutionalists, come on in, the Tea Partiers.
Then in the 80s, moral majority, Christian right.
Everybody came in.
Then the libertarians.
So many people saw something in the Republican conservative movement that the Democrats didn't have.
And they noticed this, and they saw this, and they felt it.
And it was something which was critical, and they utilized this.
Voices That Matter00:11:20
And the thing I'm trying to tell you is that this could be happening right now, and I believe it is, regarding Candace.
Because Candace sees this, and she's pulling people into her tent, and she's saying, come to me.
Listen, I don't care whether you're left or right or Democrat or Republican.
Do you want truth?
Do you want somebody who's tired of this?
Let me, do you just want somebody just to speak to you like you're a human being?
That's all.
I want to win you over with my logic, with my theories, with my ideology, with my thinking, and not with sparklers and gold lame and this weird, this, this strange, Erica Kirk thinks it's a beauty pageant.
There's something about, I'm sorry, beauty pageants and cheerleading and all this I'm beautiful, to some people, it does something.
It does something.
When you have thought your life that somehow you are possessed with some kind of raw poker tude that just is overwhelming, you're the madahari, you're some kind of a, your beauty is so mesmerized.
I'm sorry to say this.
A lot of people in those pageants, they think that there's some, it doesn't work anymore.
No, but even kids say they don't even know it.
What's a beauty pageant?
It's a minstrel show.
It's a modern day, it's an anachronism.
And younger conservatives and people who I believe are conservatives are rebelling against this weird message because they see a country drowning in debt and culture wars and intensifying censorship and expanding and political elites protecting themselves but not their interests.
While telling young people to be patient, relax.
Candace channels that frustration while TPUSA ignores them.
They tried to try to contain it, but they talk about how great they are.
You know, a lot of kids remember they went through COVID.
COVID was the chance where people, COVID changed everything.
And now's the time to get those people and seize those people and get them on our side.
And this different also makes up, shows up in how criticism is handled.
Because Candace confronts critics publicly.
She debates aggressively.
She takes risks.
She keeps moving.
And when mistakes happen, so wait a minute USA, however, often responds with silence, legal threats, complaints, injunctions, or carefully worded statements that make the organization look almost defensive, out of touch with online culture.
And the Tea Party comparison matters because the Tea Party was not polished.
It was loud and messy and sometimes rambunctious and emotional, but it felt real.
And that realness created momentum that scared establishment politicians out of their mind on both sides.
And Candace represents that same disruptive force inside, I guess, conservative media today, no matter how much they attack her.
She challenges gatekeepers, she questions party loyalty, and she refuses to play it safe.
While TPUSA and Erica have slowly become a gatekeeper itself, deciding what topics are acceptable, what voices get promoted, who gets promoted, and which controversies are too risky.
And young audience see this contradiction clearly because you can't claim to be anti-establishment while behaving like an establishment brand, some hardcore.
And you can't sell rebellion while managing everything through committees and donor expectations.
And Erica Kirk's leadership symbolizes this problem glaringly because she didn't rise through grassroots support or independent influence.
She stepped into a role built on symbolism, symbology, semiotics, rather than earned media authority.
And sympathy doesn't equal leadership, especially in the digital world where attention is ruthless and evanescent.
And when Erica speaks, people do not lean forward emotionally.
They don't dab their eyes as she does hers, almost in this Pavlovian type of, it's sad, it's like a shtick.
They don't flood comment sections with excitement or clipper speeches for viral sharing, while Candace creates moments that spark debate, inspire anger and support and conversation, which is exactly and precisely how influence spreads online.
And here's where the shift becomes even bigger than TPUSA.
Because Candace, I'm telling you, I hope she doesn't run for office.
I want her to be the William F. Buckley, so to speak, to control a movement.
But Candace is no longer just competing with organizations.
She is building something.
And listen carefully.
That could eventually, and I say, stand beside and even beyond MA itself.
Not by replacing loyalty to Trump or whatever, but by offering something that many young people feel is missing, desperately missing.
A sense of purpose, intellectual challenge, some emotional connection that goes deeper than slogans and fireworks and sparklers, because MAGA started as a political movement centered on one man and one moment, while Candace is, I guess she's building a cultural movement centered on ideas and identity and long-term engagement.
And that is why people are saying she gives young conservatives and older as well.
Don't think I'm just eliminating them, but she gives them something to believe in, something to really care about, and something to think about, not just something to chant.
And this is why her influence feels different, because she's not just repeating talking points.
She's shaping how people see the world, how they interpret news, and how they think about power, and what they feel and they emote culture and identity and the kind of influence that lasts longer than election cycles.
And it's also explaining something, why those who try to block her and destroy her or dismiss her power are going to regret it later.
Because in politics and media, there is an unwritten rule that you do not want to be on the wrong side of a rising force.
Not because of personal revenge fantasies, but because influence decides who gets invited, who gets amplified, and who gets ignored.
And Candace is becoming the type of figure, the type of personality who controls attention flows, who can elevate allies and freeze out opponents simply by choosing where to focus her energy.
And that kind of leverage is rare and it's growing.
And it is why some insiders quietly admit she can become bigger than anyone expected.
Bigger than early MA media figures.
Bigger than traditional conservative organizations and more powerful, more powerful than nonprofit brands that once dominated youth outreach.
And the reason is simple.
She owns her audience.
She's not dependent on one platform, one donor network, or one organization.
She can pivot, she can adapt, she can evolve, while TPUSA remains stuck, tied to sponsors, internal politics, and reputation or risk management.
And speed matters online.
You know this.
Boldness matters online.
And emotional connection matters.
And Candace Owens checks all three boxes.
While TPUSA struggles with all three.
And the larger trend is that influence is shifting away from centralized organizations and towards individual creators, individual creators who speak directly to audiences.
Because I'm telling you, people no longer trust keykeepers to represent them.
They trust voices, voices who feel human, flawed, and direct.
And Candace, by the way, fits this model perfectly.
While TPUSA remains stuck in the old one, this old method, this whole thing, where conferences and branding and official statements were, oh, and these cordy, and no, Erica, do you have an announcer?
Like, what is this?
It's like golden globes.
It's tacky.
It's anachronistic.
It's from the past.
This is important.
To be able to dominate conversations, that's what we need.
And the result right now is that Candace Owens is building a personal media empire while TPUSA is trying to preserve relevance through infrastructure rather than influence.
And young conservatives or people that don't know they're conservative, who are looking for something that Charlie provided, they can sense this difference instinctively because they live online.
They understand algorithms and know attention flows towards authenticity, not bureaucracy.
And the Tea Party energy, which I say again, that once disrupted Republican leadership now lives more in independent creators like Candace than in organized nonprofits.
And that should scare the hell out of TPUSA leadership and Erica, if she's even paying attention, because it means the audience is voting with clicks and shares and subscriptions.
And those votes increasingly favor Candace and her movement, if you will.
And this doesn't mean that Candace is perfect or immune from mistakes.
No, in fact, that's what makes her human.
But it does mean she's brave enough to be independent.
And as you will find, independence builds respect even among critics.
While this corporate messaging thing, disguised as activism, this TPUSA stuff, it builds cynicism.
And the long-term danger for TPUSA isn't just declining relevance, but becoming a symbol of controlled opposition.
A brand that looks rebellious on the surface, but never truly challenges the power structure.
And I'm saying this again to the point of exhaustion.
Young people are especially sensitive to this because they grew up watching corporations pretend to be edgy and, you know, hip and whatever you want to call it while selling products.
And they recognize that the same pattern in political groups that sell rebellion while protecting donors and relationships doesn't work here.
Hurt People, Hurt People00:04:08
You listen to me.
Candace Owens breaks that pattern by being willing to offend allies and challenge party leaders and say uncomfortable truth.
And that willingness, that ability to speak, is exactly what built the Tea Party in the first place.
When people were tired of politicians who promised change, a lot of, I mean, you know, who made a lot of long-term promises and pledges, but they delivered compromise.
And the lesson for anybody watching this shift is simple.
Authenticity beats branding every single time.
And boldness beats safety.
Look, I've said it a gazillion ways.
I'm telling you, I'm telling you exactly what's happening right now.
I'm telling you exactly.
Listen to me.
The other issues are important.
Yes, Minnesota and ICE.
Yes, yes, yes.
I'm not in any way saying they're not.
And there's some fine, fine commentary and news on that.
And you know where to go, and they're doing a wonderful job.
It's a very critical issue.
But I'm talking about something that's going to be around for 25 years.
I'm looking right now at the end of the two-party system, the end of this left-right paradigm, this illusion.
And I'm looking at the end of the Republican Party.
Because there are a lot of people who found out that because of Charlie, they realize, you know what?
This guy, Charlie, is pretty good.
I feel pretty, I guess I'm a conservative, because that's what he was saying.
And they're going to lose that.
They're going to lose all that.
But not for Candace.
My friends, thank you for this.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you for your involvement.
You know, we were talking about this Laurie and all of these people, these folks who are involved with kids.
I want to thank you immensely for you having shown support for my wife's Lynn's Warriors.
You know, we've been talking about this left and right.
The biggest issue, bigger, I dare say, than anything, is child predict and human trafficking.
And there's an expression, hurt people, hurt people.
And the number of people who are out there who have been themselves who have been subjugated and harmed and abandoned by folks, especially in the church or whatever, it's enough to make you to you can't believe this.
And she's finding this.
And I'm telling you where they're getting kids is online prediction online.
So anyway, follow Lynn's Warriors.
Thank you for that.
Thank you also for liking this.
Do you know that when you like a video, it puts us into a category.
And by the way, I'm catching more grief, which is good because I'm doing something right, from people who do not feel that maybe I'm straying from my conservative roots.
I said, who says I'm a conservative?
I'm not a Republican, but a Democrat.
But they felt like, but we thought, you don't ever anticipate what I'm thinking.
Because like John Mander Kane said, when the facts changed, I changed my opinion.
And I didn't leave the Democratic Party or whatever it is.
They left me or Republicans.
Republicans aren't doing anything for me anymore.
And you ain't seeing nothing.
And I'm not going to go into this yet, but when you see what's happening regarding just this, when I saw Trump, even despite Lutnick at the World Economic Forum.
Anyway, that's a different story.
Don't want to confuse the issues.
Thank you.
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