As uncertainty mounts about whether the new Republican-controlled Senate will sign off on some of President-elect Donald Trump’s more controversial Cabinet picks, a top conservative grassroots group is dialing up the pressure.
Turning Point Action, the group spearheaded by prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk, plans to hold rallies in states where they believe GOP senators may need extra “encouragement” to approve nominees like Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. That list also initially included Rep. Matt Gaetz, who Trump tapped for attorney general, though the Florida Republican on Thursday announced he was withdrawing from consideration, explaining that his confirmation process had become a “distraction.”
A handful of Trump’s nominees, ranging from top defense to health positions, have drawn bipartisan pushback, even as Trump, his Vice President-elect JD Vance and other top allies are lobbying for their confirmations. Some, like Gaetz and Hegseth, have been dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct, while Gabbard and Kennedy, who were both Democrats until recently, have histories of policy positions that have raised concerns by some traditional Republicans.
On Thursday, Kirk announced on his show, according to a pre-recorded copy of the audio obtained by POLITICO, the states that Turning Point is eyeing visits as part of their efforts to apply pressure to the Senate GOP.
Kirk said the initiative will start as an “encouragement campaign,” and will “activate into a pressure campaign for red-state senators.”
“We will bring this roadshow, on the ground by the way, potentially to Rapid City, South Dakota; to Sioux Falls, South Dakota; to Boise, Idaho; to Fayetteville, Arkansas; to Topeka, Kansas; to Tupelo, Mississippi. You picking up what I’m throwing down?”
Kirk added that if senators “publicly come out and say that you’re going to support President Trump’s Cabinet, then there’s no reason for us to come to your home state.”
A website that the organization launched includes lists of GOP senators who voted to confirm various nominees made by President Joe Biden, in line with historic precedent of some degree of bipartisan support for a new president’s cabinet selections.
Kirk, who oversaw a get-out-the-vote effort for Trump, has been spotted around Mar-a-Lago as transition meetings have taken place.