The tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University has brought new attention to the incredible story of how Turning Point USA began. Five years before his death, Kirk’s mentor Bill Montgomery shared the remarkable tale of how he discovered the young conservative firebrand who would change American politics forever. This is the story of two patriots who built a movement from nothing but faith and determination.
Back in May 2012, Bill Montgomery was just another retired businessman attending a boring political event at Benedictine University in Illinois. The 71-year-old marketing expert was checking his watch as speaker after speaker put 400 high school students to sleep with dull presentations about politics. Then an 18-year-old named Charlie Kirk stepped up to the microphone and everything changed in just 20 seconds.
Montgomery watched in amazement as Kirk transformed those sleepy teenagers into wide-awake patriots hanging on every word. The old businessman knew he was witnessing something special that day. After the speech, Montgomery made a decision that would shake up American politics for the next decade.
Montgomery walked up to the unknown teenager and told him something that would change history. “Charlie Kirk, you don’t know me, but you can’t go to college,” he said with conviction. Kirk was already accepted to Baylor University like any other smart kid, but Montgomery saw a gift that couldn’t be wasted in some liberal classroom.
What happened next proves that real American movements don’t need fancy offices or big money backing. Montgomery and Kirk spent two and a half years traveling across the country in rental cars, building Turning Point USA from scratch in a two-car garage in Illinois. The older patriot handled the logistics while the young fireband spread the conservative message to students hungry for truth.
Montgomery gave up his comfortable retirement years because he believed America’s future depended on reaching young people with conservative values. His wife joked that she “got her husband back” after those intense years of building the movement. But Montgomery knew the sacrifice was worth it because he was helping save the country from liberal indoctrination.
From that humble garage in suburban Chicago, these two patriots built an organization that reached millions of students on 3,500 campuses across all 50 states. They proved that ordinary Americans with extraordinary courage can take on the liberal establishment and win. Montgomery’s vision of turning young people into conservative warriors became reality through pure determination.
Now both men are gone, but their legacy lives on in every young conservative who refuses to accept liberal lies on college campuses. Montgomery died from COVID complications in 2020, and Kirk was assassinated while doing what he loved most – speaking truth to students. These American heroes showed us that movements built on truth and patriotism never really die.
