Turning Point USA is pushing to transform itself from a right-wing campus activism organization into an incubator for Republican candidates, with a slate of Turning Point-affiliated candidates seeking public office in the 2024 elections.

In Michigan’s 27th state House District, Rylee Linting, the youth vice chair of the state GOP, is running in the hopes of flipping a seat in the state’s narrowly divided legislature. If successful, her run could help break the Democratic trifecta in the state, where Democrats currently enjoy a 56-54 seat majority in the House. There’s a decent chance of her winning too — in 2022, Democratic state Rep. Jamie Churches won the seat by just a single percentage point.

From a bird’s eye view, Linting’s candidacy cleaves to many patterns typical of the modern GOP. She decries “the woke student culture” at Michigan’s universities, criticizes “globalist” institutions like the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum, attacks “mass vaccination mandates,” engages in anti-trans rhetoric and has described Project 2025 as something “I think most Republicans would support.”

There is something notable about Linting’s candidacy, however. She is just 22 years old and has a background as a professional activist at Turning Point Action, the 501(c)(4) — often called a “dark money” group — associated with activist Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. And, she’s not alone: Rylee is one of a crop of Turning Point-affiliated candidates seeking elected office this year.

In Michigan, Linting is one of two candidates with ties to the conservative organization who ran this year. The other is one-time state House candidate Miguel Pilar, who withdrew his candidacy before the deadline for........

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