Turning Point USA co-founder Bill Montgomery dies at 80

Bill Montgomery, the cofounder of Turning Point USA, a conservative student organization, died Tuesday from coronavirus.

He was 80.

“He believed in me. He poured his heart & soul & time into me. He took a risk on me and without Bill Montgomery, there is no TPUSA,” Charlie Kirk, who cofounded the group with Montgomery in 2012, tweeted. “He touched the lives of thousands of young Americans and I will miss him greatly.”

Turning Point credited Montgomery with the “generosity and willingness invest in an 18-yearold with no experience and no connections that gave birth to the dream.”

“Bill’s steadfast devotion to his family, his country, and the organization he helped create have left a permanent mark on the entire Turing Point USA community, and by extension an entire generation of students,” the group said.

Turning Point USA, which lists its priorities as “fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government,” has been popular among younger conservatives.

Kirk has been outspoken about his disregard for coronavirus protocols, including mask usage.

“The science around masks is very questionable, very questionable,” he said on his podcast Sunday, days before Montgomery died. “In fact some people, some doctors think that masks actually make you sicker and have you less likely to be able to get oxygen and more likely to infect yourself, and less likely to be able to fight the virus, and actually more likely to be able to die sooner.”

Montgomery is survived by his wife, Edie, and two children.