Candace Owens quits Turning Point USA after members demand she resign

Candace Owens, the GOP darling for the moment, has officially resigned as communications director for Turning Point USA, the right-leaning organization aimed at educating college students about “free markets and limited government

Ny Magee

May 7, 2019

Candace Owens, the GOP darling for the moment, has officially resigned as communications director for Turning Point USA, the right-leaning organization aimed at educating college students about “free markets and limited government,” according to its website.

Owens announced her exit plans in a lengthy Instagram post on May 1, and her departure comes amid calls from supporters and members of the organization for her to step down following controversial comments she made in February about Adolf Hitler.

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I am both excited and sad to announce that I will be officially moving on from my role as Communications Director for Turning Point USA. Charlie and I never could have predicted how big things would get since that day I was sprinting around a conference in Palm Beach trying to get anyone to give me a chance. We couldn’t have predicted the Kanye tweet. We couldn’t have predicted our breakfast with Antifa. And we definitely couldn’t have predicted Ted Lieu. And yet here we are. Turning Point is an amazing organization that is fighting a cultural war on college campuses. Watching the way in which this organization has grown has been one of the greatest honors of my life. We love our freedom-fighting students. We love our campus clashes. I have loved every single minute of traveling the country and learning the real spirit of this amazing nation. But the sad truth is that the majority of black Americans don’t never make it to college. My dream has always been simple— to wake up black America—To turn the lights on within a community that has been used and abused by the Democrat party for decades. No one believed my dream was possible. Charlie always knew it was. Can we move the black vote 20 point by 2020? That is my vision and I want to pour every single minute into making my dream a reality. With the #BLEXIT movement, the Candace Owens podcast, and my upcoming book— I no longer feel I can be a dedicated communications director to an organization that is rightfully growing rapidly. In many ways, today feels like a graduation! I have learned so much and want to thank all of our students, and especially Tyler Bowyer and Charlie Kirk for giving me this amazing platform and opportunity to do what I love most. All that aside— I will of course still be speaking at all Turning Point conferences and will continue to chair the annual Black Leadership Summit in the fall. So sign up people! Fittingly—on this week’s episode of the Candace Owens Show, Charlie and I will take a trip down memory lane. Be sure to tune in! We couldn’t be more excited to share this conversation with the world. Xx

A post shared by Candace Owens (@realcandaceowens) on May 1, 2019 at 2:48pm PDT

While speaking at a London event to launch a U.K. chapter of TPUSA, she argued that Hitler was an “OK” leader until he tried to take his message of genocide global.

“If Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK fine,” she said in response to a question about nationalism. “The problem is he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize … he wanted everyone to be German.”

After that comment, several Turning Point campus chapters fired off a letter calling for her to resign, according to The Daily Beast.

“Turning Point USA is above this thoughtless and divisive rhetoric, and as Chapters, Presidents, and Leaders of Turning Point USA, we will no longer stand idly by as they continue,” they wrote in a statement. “We don’t believe Candace Owens to be the most effective representation for Turning Point USA, as Communications Director or otherwise.

Meanwhile, in her farewell post on Instagram, Owens describes TPUSA as an “amazing” group that’s fighting a so-called “cultural war on college campuses.”

She also notes both her excitement and sorrow over “officially moving on from my role as Communications Director for Turning Point USA.”

“In many ways, today feels like a graduation!” Owens added.

The FOX News contributor said she still plans to appear at future conferences for the conservative nonprofit organization and will continue to chair the annual Black Leadership Summit. But her focus will now be on pushing her “Blexit” movement, a platform she uses to convince more Black voters to join the Republican party.

“My dream has always been simple— to wake up black America—To turn the lights on within a community that has been used and abused by the Democrat party for decades,” she wrote in her Instagram post.