Candace Owens says her war with Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is about seeking justice for Charlie Kirk. But I don’t think she’s seeking justice for Charlie at all. When it comes to TPUSA, I believe she’s seeking justice for herself.
I believe Candace has a personal vendetta with TPUSA that didn’t start with Charlie’s death. It began years ago.
I wrote about Candace’s conspiracy addiction, but that was just one aspect of her behavior since Charlie Kirk was murdered. The issue with her war with TPUSA is a different layer of her behavior since Charlie’s murder.
The Grudge No One’s Talking About
To understand the current war Candace has with TPUSA, you have to go back to 2019.
Before The Daily Wire. Before she attacked Israel. Before the conspiracies.
Candace held a position with TPUSA as their Communications Director, where she worked closely with Charlie Kirk from 2017-2019.
After making controversial remarks about Hitler at an event in London in 2019, several TPUSA university chapters publicly called for her resignation. The university chapters put their concerns in writing, demanding that Candace step down. They made it clear that they didn’t want her as a representative for the organization.
She was forced out of TPUSA.
Candace put out a polished resignation statement, trying to make it sound bittersweet and forward-looking. But her statement didn’t reflect the pain she likely felt, feeling rejected and pushed out of TPUSA.
She went from being a part of the organization to being an invited speaker. She was invited back to speak on occasion at TPUSA events after resigning, but being a guest speaker isn’t the same as being a part of the organization and Charlie’s close collaborator.
That kind of hurt doesn’t evaporate quickly. And maybe for Candace, it never evaporated. It festered.
I believe the attack we’re seeing from Candace on TPUSA today is that unhealed wound rearing its ugly head.
To her, maybe that old, unhealed wound is just as fresh as it was in 2019, especially now after Charlie’s murder.
Candace Wants To Be A Part of TPUSA’s Inner Circle
From the moment Charlie was murdered, Candace went straight into combat mode against TPUSA. Out of nowhere, she decided the actions of TPUSA staff were suspicious. She made conspiratorial hints, financial insinuations, warnings to donors to stop giving, and even suggested they demand refunds. She turned normal actions of TPUSA into something sinister. Actions that, if in any other situation, no one would bat an eye.
Candace hoped to hear from TPUSA after Charlie’s murder.
“I truly believed that I would be fighting for answers alongside Charlie’s inner circle. I thought we were going to all be on a group chat demanding answers.”
–Candace Owens
But Candace didn’t get a call from TPUSA. She wasn’t invited back into the fold. And that’s why she wants to burn the organization down.
The World Is Watching
Candace has millions of followers who believe her accusations against TPUSA. We live in a “right now” culture where people forget what happened a year ago, let alone six. And when a person has built trust with their audience, their claims feel believable simply because they’re the one saying them, no matter how outrageous they sound. Some even think she’s doing the Lord’s work.
But what she’s really doing is pulling her audience into her own spiral. They think they’re getting truth, but she’s giving them her distortion. The actual truth is far simpler than the wild story she’s constructing.
Most people who are reacting negatively to Candace’s attacks are reacting to the spectacle–the chaos, the shock value, the sheer audacity of it all. But focusing only on the noise misses the heartbeat of what’s really happening. What I’m seeing has very little to do with Charlie and everything to do with a wound Candace never healed from.
Candace Doesn’t Like Being Told “No”
I’ve noticed something about Candace. She doesn’t respond well to being told “no,” or being limited, or being pushed aside. When she feels controlled, dismissed, or replaced, she doesn’t quietly move on, not inwardly anyway.
Her fallout with The Daily Wire is an example. She said that when she was with The Daily Wire, she was discouraged from criticizing Israel while being encouraged to critique the Black community. Whether you agree or disagree with the boundaries The Daily Wire set is one thing, but the point I’m making is how Candace processed those limits.
After being fired from The Daily Wire and no longer bound by their rules, she didn’t just criticize Israel; she went in full force because resentment fuels intensity. She put the knife in and twisted it over and over and over again. Her disdain for those who tried to silence her oozed out, without ever mentioning their names. Israel looks like the target, but the real target is the people who told her “no.”
Her war with TPUSA has that same energy.
This War Was Never About Charlie
Candace Owens’ accusations against TPUSA don’t line up with grief. They line up with grievance. I don’t think she believes the things she’s saying because they’re true; she believes them because her distorted perception makes them feel true to her.
Do I think Candace is sitting around coming up with evil ways to take down TPUSA? I don’t think it’s as simple as that. On one hand, she comes across as malicious. On the other hand, she seems to be living in a distorted reality. I think it’s both of those-distortion is shaping her beliefs, and her behavior is malicious.
The distortion reminds me of the film A Beautiful Mind, based on the real mathematician, John Nash, who lived with schizophrenia. In the movie, the people Nash interacted with were completely real to him, and the film makes the audience believe they were real too, until the truth is revealed. The film illustrates the profound power of the mind in creating connections and meanings that seem true, even when they aren’t.
I’m not saying Candace is schizophrenic. I’m simply making a point about perception. The human mind can interpret something as absolutely true when it isn’t, especially when old wounds or unresolved emotions are involved.
Something in her reactions feels unanchored, like she’s interpreting threats that don’t actually exist and connecting dots that are completely unrelated. And that combination, malice mixed with distortion, is dangerous.
I believe Candace is attempting to finish off a battle from 2019 that she never really got to fight or win. And now, with Charlie gone, there’s no friendship left to protect, so she’s going all in to destroy TPUSA.
She sees TPUSA as evil, not because it had anything to do with Charlie’s murder, but because of what they did to her. Her unresolved anger and hurt from being ousted from TPUSA have distorted her thinking.
TPUSA Finally Responds
The TPUSA team ignored Candace’s accusations for as long as they could. But when she accused them of financial fraud and urged donors to no longer donate, they finally said enough.
They may have hoped she would eventually run out of steam and stop her ambush, but it became clear that her goal is to ruin the organization.
Candace’s accusations are having real consequences; it’s not just online drama. I saw that one well-known influencer announced he was no longer supporting TPUSA, and others have followed. TPUSA had no choice but to speak up.
Recently, Blake Neff of TPUSA, responded to some of Candace’s accusations and announced a date for a livestream to address all of her claims, and they invited her to join them. And then later, Erika Kirk announced that she and Candace will meet in person instead of that livestream.
What This All Comes Down To
When I look at Candace’s behavior towards TPUSA, I don’t see a woman fighting for a fallen friend. I see a woman who’s angry because she felt she was tossed aside.
Candace isn’t seeking justice for Charlie. She wants justice for TPUSA rejecting her. And from that angle, her entire war with TPUSA looks different.
Unhealed wounds are always ugly, just like the war Candace is waging against TPUSA.
Emotionally, Candace seems stuck in 2019, never getting over being pushed out of the organization. And now, after Charlie’s murder, when she may have hoped to be invited back into the fold, being passed over again has made that wound feel just as fresh.
Perhaps in her mind, with her distorted thinking, destroying Turning Point USA might be the only way to settle the unfinished business she’s been carrying.
TPUSA decided years ago she wasn’t the right fit, and they moved on without her in 2019 and again in 2025.
And that’s the part she can’t accept. In the end, Candace isn’t fighting TPUSA, she’s fighting being rejected.
I don’t think any conversation between Candace and TPUSA will be productive unless she deals with her pain and anger because that’s the real battle she’s fighting.
But even then, because she’s looking through a distorted lens, I think a dialogue with TPUSA responding to her accusations would be futile.
And it’ll be interesting to see how the meeting between Erika and Candace unfolds, because I’m not convinced Candace is capable of a productive conversation while she’s still operating from anger, resentment, and unresolved hurt.
This article is part of the Candace Owens Series.
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)