My friend Leah Aldridge said if I got a chance to go to the Charlie Kirk Young Women’s Summit, I should do it. Leah created a group called “Women Lead Right” in Georgia and collaborates in the Jewish community with a women’s group called “Better Together” for Christian and Jewish women to talk to and learn about each other in the wake of the October 7th Massacre. So, when the opportunity to attend the TPUSA Young Women’s Leadership Summit (YWLS) this week, I took it.
I arrived before the buzz of the event started during the set up. As I walked in I saw the first big indicator this was different. The Gaylord in Grapevine, Texas hosted the event, it’s a suburb of Dallas. From the time you turned the corner on the way to the Convention Center, the branding was everywhere. Overhead, on the escalators, groupings of pictures on the walls and signs directing traffic—you knew you were in a safe space for women to speak conservative values.
I talked to many young and younger women who were here for their 1st to their 5th one of these events. There was excitement in the air. I met folks from Mississippi, Texas, New York City, Upstate New York, Georgia, Colorado, California and everywhere in between. A growing number up to thousands of women coming to hear the conservative message from other women.
So how does Charlie Kirk fit into this? I’m not sure yet. I’m sure there’s a good woman around him that had the idea. I’m hoping to ask him that later.
I connected with a number of women from my own home state. I posted on X that I was here and started to get responses. That led several of them to come watch me do my program on Friday and I hope we will have dinner later—if I can stay up that late. Central Time is not my time zone and I admit I’m an Eastern Time snob. They are working hard to grow TPUSA, but also to grow Young Republicans and other conservative groups for young people—mostly women. I had a couple of people comment they need something like this for conservative men. I thought, “Aren’t all other conservative group event basically that?”
This is a different kind of political meeting. It had the feeling of a CPAC back in its heyday where conservatives of all stripes could get together and see they were not alone. Women on college campuses feel a great pressure to be leftist in ideology and TPUSA events at colleges and here at the YWLS lets them know, they are not alone.
In the exhibit hall, there were the usual conservative groups but there was shopping, too. And not just political swag, legit fashion items. Not things I would wear or buy, but things young women would want—fashion trends.
Speeches kick off late this afternoon and it will be a cavalcade of known names of conservative political women and a few that are in the wellness and health space, too. I believe that’s nod to the MAHA movement. They’ve got the ambiance right.
The thing that’s most notable here is the happiness quotient. People are smiling, greeting each other, introducing themselves to new people (in person) and looking ahead. They are also very well dressed. There is also a real reverence to traditional women’s values. I love that because for years we have tried to pit working women against so called non-working women. In a family, whether you go to work or you stay home and take care of the family, there is no such thing as a woman who doesn’t work. With all the changes in the world and I have 2 sons are are as helpful as any 21st Century Dads could be, but my DIL’s still do so much more on top of full time jobs as it relates to the family.
The deal my husband and I had was that he made the living and I made the living easy. Even when I went back to work when the kids were older, I still ran the home and at times have pitched in helping with kids, grandkids and aging parents. There are just some things that most of us women are better at and that is celebrated here.
So, if you’re not here in Dallas, watch the events here. If you didn’t come this year, you should make a point to come next year. I will definitely be back.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2025/6/1292042/charlie-kirk-and-tpusa-put-community-back-into-conferences