"We’re going to be a movement that is about winning elections. We want to win."
minute read
A straw poll conducted at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest this weekend showed overwhelming support for Vice President JD Vance as the Republican Party’s early 2028 frontrunner, while also revealing how conservatives at the event are thinking about Israel, immigration, and the internal divisions that often dominate online discourse.
Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show and a Turning Point USA spokesman, told The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI that the conference atmosphere looked very different in real life than it does on social media.
“If you look on social media, you might be convinced that everything’s so divided and so contentious,” Kolvet said, but added that the “IRL (in real life) experience is just how united everybody is.”
According to the AmericaFest straw poll results conducted by Big Data Poll, 84.2 percent of respondents said they want Vice President JD Vance to be the GOP nominee in 2028. Sen. Marco Rubio followed at 4.8 percent, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in at 2.9 percent.
Kolvet didn’t deny friction inside the coalition. He described some moments at AmericaFest as a kind of airing of internal disputes like “celebrating Festivus,” he quipped, before urging conservatives not to panic about disagreement. “Don’t be afraid of a little disagreement, a little healthy family business,” he said, arguing the movement is trying to find “that healthy center cut… that dominant core middle that is a winning coalition.”
Kolvet said the loudest voices often come from the fringes: when a movement seeks a winning “center cut,” “you’re going to have people on either one fringe or the other… trying to pull it in the other direction,” and “they tend to get the most attention.”
On Israel and antisemitism, Kolvet emphasized what he called non-negotiable boundaries. “There’s no room for antisemitism. There’s no room for racism,” Kolvet said, describing the message delivered from the stage as part of a broader call to return to “merit” and “letting the best ideas, the best people advance and win.”
He also said those boundaries are foundational to the movement’s identity: “Charlie was about big tent politics,” Kolvet said, but “he had a bright line on things… there’s no room in the conservative movement for Jew hate.”
In the straw poll, attendees were asked about Israel: 53.4 percent said Israel is “one ally out of many,” about one-third said Israel is America’s “top ally,” and 13.3 percent said Israel is “not an ally.” Kolvet highlighted a related takeaway he said stood out to him: “It’s like eighty-seven percent of attendees support Israel, [and] consider it an important ally of the country.”
The poll found the most popular Trump administration accomplishment among attendees was securing the border (nearly 60 percent), followed by deportations (22.2 percent). Relatedly, 89.5 percent said they would support a moratorium on new immigration into the US.
Looking to 2026, 63.9 percent said the conservative movement’s top priority should be winning the midterms, with smaller shares naming voter integrity/voter ID (9.3 percent), affordability (8.1 percent), mass deportations (5.3 percent), and deep state/lawfare accountability (4.2 percent).
Kolvet argued the movement can’t afford to splinter if it wants to win. “We’re going to be a movement that is about winning elections. We want to win.”
Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show and a Turning Point USA spokesman, told The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI that the conference atmosphere looked very different in real life than it does on social media.
“If you look on social media, you might be convinced that everything’s so divided and so contentious,” Kolvet said, but added that the “IRL (in real life) experience is just how united everybody is.”
According to the AmericaFest straw poll results conducted by Big Data Poll, 84.2 percent of respondents said they want Vice President JD Vance to be the GOP nominee in 2028. Sen. Marco Rubio followed at 4.8 percent, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in at 2.9 percent.
Kolvet didn’t deny friction inside the coalition. He described some moments at AmericaFest as a kind of airing of internal disputes like “celebrating Festivus,” he quipped, before urging conservatives not to panic about disagreement. “Don’t be afraid of a little disagreement, a little healthy family business,” he said, arguing the movement is trying to find “that healthy center cut… that dominant core middle that is a winning coalition.”
Kolvet said the loudest voices often come from the fringes: when a movement seeks a winning “center cut,” “you’re going to have people on either one fringe or the other… trying to pull it in the other direction,” and “they tend to get the most attention.”
On Israel and antisemitism, Kolvet emphasized what he called non-negotiable boundaries. “There’s no room for antisemitism. There’s no room for racism,” Kolvet said, describing the message delivered from the stage as part of a broader call to return to “merit” and “letting the best ideas, the best people advance and win.”
He also said those boundaries are foundational to the movement’s identity: “Charlie was about big tent politics,” Kolvet said, but “he had a bright line on things… there’s no room in the conservative movement for Jew hate.”
In the straw poll, attendees were asked about Israel: 53.4 percent said Israel is “one ally out of many,” about one-third said Israel is America’s “top ally,” and 13.3 percent said Israel is “not an ally.” Kolvet highlighted a related takeaway he said stood out to him: “It’s like eighty-seven percent of attendees support Israel, [and] consider it an important ally of the country.”
The poll found the most popular Trump administration accomplishment among attendees was securing the border (nearly 60 percent), followed by deportations (22.2 percent). Relatedly, 89.5 percent said they would support a moratorium on new immigration into the US.
Looking to 2026, 63.9 percent said the conservative movement’s top priority should be winning the midterms, with smaller shares naming voter integrity/voter ID (9.3 percent), affordability (8.1 percent), mass deportations (5.3 percent), and deep state/lawfare accountability (4.2 percent).
Kolvet argued the movement can’t afford to splinter if it wants to win. “We’re going to be a movement that is about winning elections. We want to win.”
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