Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest is a lot like a circus, and I mean that in the best way possible. A circus can travel anywhere, set up its tents and put on a show.
The size of last weekend’s event in Phoenix was nothing short of monumental, with 31,000 in attendance. That’s not too far off from the estimated 50,000 souls who went to the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Erika Kirk greets Vice President JD Vance during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Phoenix. (Jon Cherry/AP Photo)
To put it bluntly, TPUSA, along with other organizations, is in a position to organize a much-needed interim convention, and a city like Phoenix, which has admirably hosted the conservative confab, is exactly where it should be held.
As I’ve written before in this column, a midterm GOP convention, while a bit unconventional as a concept, is exactly what Republicans need to put Trump and his policies at the forefront of the electorate’s mind.
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John and Lucy, a couple in their 40s who I met at the event, told me it was their first AmFest.
“The energy is amazing,” Lucy said. “I didn’t know what to expect, but I didn’t expect this either.”
John agreed, saying, “This is like a rock concert, fireworks and loud music, I think it gets everyone excited.”
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The atmosphere at AmFest was a buzzing and buzzing technicolor explosion of light and sound, all resonating toward the goal of advancing the conservative movement.
Participants pray during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025, Thursday, December 18, 2025, in Phoenix. (Jon Kers/AP)
There’s little doubt that 10 minutes at a pulsating and intense live event like Amfest – or a Trump rally – is worth 10 days of screen ads. It hits attendees in every one of their five senses, and 50,000 may not sound like a lot, but that’s a real army to send home in an off-year election.
An enthusiastic young conservative I met, Matt, who studied finance in high school and sports, what might now be called the TPUSA mustache, told me, “I would totally go to a midterm convention. I would just go for the parties.”
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That may sound superficial to some, but it also sounds like exactly the kind of positive energy a winning political movement needs.
When it comes to the question of where to hold an interim conference, Phoenix can teach potential conference planners a lot about the key question of location, location, and more location.
In places like New York City or Chicago, AmFest is said to have brought out hundreds of protesters, many of them of the dangerous Antifa variety. Even much smaller events, such as a recent Mom’s For Liberty conference in Philadelphia, attracted angry crowds.
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In Phoenix I never saw more than a dozen, and they were far more silly than threatening.
It’s worth noting that local news outlets chose to give almost as much attention to this rumpled group of seemingly unemployed naysayers as they did to the tens of thousands of attendees at the event.
Funny that.
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But in the clean and very beautiful downtown with soft lighting and perfect temperatures, you felt little to no resentment or reluctance at the sudden rush of red MAGA hats and sparkly Trump outerwear. Everything was cool.
I asked one of my Uber drivers, a longtime Phoenix resident, why he thought the city was so welcoming in this way.
“No one is uptight about politics. Everyone has weird ideas, we have weird politicians,” he told me, laughing briefly at his own joke before adding, “It’s always been that way.”
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Phoenix isn’t the only prime location for a midterm convention. Oklahoma City is another, as is Nashville. These are thriving places with better than average governance, which really highlights the achievements of the Trump administration.
JD VanceJD Vance told the audience at AmFest, “Why do we punish companies that ship American jobs overseas? Because we believe in the inherent dignity of human work and everyone who does good work in this country.”
The best place to sell that very popular message is in the smaller American cities where the jobs are being created, not in one of the big metropolises that still cling to the dream that one day everyone can just work for the government.
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Currently, the Republican Party has just over seven months to put together a midterm convention, but the good news is that it is also loaded with campaign cash. And the conservative movement has organizations like TPUSA that are able to work together to make this happen.
If Republicans want to keep Congress and give Trump a runway for his final two years, their first priority next fall should be bringing the circus back to town.
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