Episode 17: AmFest Day 1

This episode of the Reagan Faulkner Show recaps Day 1 of Turning Point USA’s AmFest, from the bustling press room and media row to a massive exhibition hall filled with hundreds of conservative businesses, advocacy groups, and student-focused organizations, including efforts to help Gen Z run for office and push constitutional amendments. Reagan describes interviewing attendees, the surprising number of high school students, and the overall electric, youth-driven environment.​

The general session featured a DJ-style, high-energy atmosphere followed by powerful speeches from Erica, Ben Shapiro, Russell Brand, Michael Knowles, and Tucker Carlson, who emphasized themes of faith, forgiveness, America First, and the primacy of Christ in guiding political convictions. Reagan notes the tension between Shapiro’s scorched-earth critique of other figures and Erica’s call for unity, as well as Tucker’s unapologetic America First message, before closing with Nate Smith’s concert, impressive TPUSA growth stats, and personal stories about bad shoe choices, a late-night Waymo ride, and anticipation for Day 2 speakers like Ben Carson.

Transcript

0:03

What's up guys and welcome back to the Reagan Faulkner Show. So I know it's not Tuesday, it's not Thursday. This is just a little about five minute recap of the first day of AmFest, what we got into, what we saw, and kind of just what the overall vibe was. And I'm so sorry if my throat is already scratchy. It was a crazy long day, but kind of from the start what we did was we obviously went downtown, grabbed some coffee at this really cool coffee place, got some breakfast. It was, you know, everything was great. We got to the convention center and the press room was really cool. It was like five rows of foldable tables and just all of the press was in there. They were writing news stories, they were setting up cameras and tripods, and it was a really, really cool experience just to see what was going on. And from my understanding, it looks like right next to us Fox News has like an entire press room to their own, and they've got coffee and fruit and it was just really cool. But we obviously got into the press room, we got everything set up, ready to go, and then we went and kind of explored the convention center for a little bit. We got there around noon and the general session didn't start until 4 55, but we could go in around three for press, I think it was. So we went into what they call the exhibition hall and media row, so you go down these escalators and there's like media straight in front of you and media to the side and Fox Nation is there and Rumble and Daily Wire and just all the big media outlets that you can think of. And it was just so, so cool and like Michael Knowles was at the Daily Wire booth at one point doing a debate or a discussion or something. I don't really remember. I was searching for espresso at that point. So it was really cool. I was like, oh my gosh, it's Michael Knowles, but I need espresso. So he was there. It was just awesome. And then in the exhibition hall were all of their vendors. And if I remember correctly, I want to say they had 300 vendors this year or like sponsors, I guess you would say. And they had like the Reagan Institute in there and they were selling books and talking about policy and internships out in California. And then there were just other businesses that were doing things the whole time. People that were selling funny hats, XXXY clothing brand was there. It was just really cool to see all these different conservative owned businesses, conservative led businesses, and just how they could all really interact to create this amazing space for young students. And there were so many high school students too, which was really surprising. But we went through the exhibition hall. We talked to some really cool people. One of the groups that we talked about or talked to is kind of like an advocacy group for constitutional amendments, which was really interesting. So they had this huge sheet of paper that was talking about like you could write down your proposed amendments and things that you would want to see in the country that would be changed. And they're trying to create a coalition of all 50 states to push forward some of these amendments. So that was really, really interesting. And then there was another group and it was specifically helping Gen Z run for office. And that was also really cool. And for the listeners out in North Carolina, y'all know Wyatt Gable from he went to ECU, but he ran in the Jacksonville district for North Carolina legislature. And this group actually was helping him with his campaign. So that was just so cool to see. And they have a map of every single like seat that they've helped somebody win. That was just really, really cool to see. And then we started doing interviews. So we took these mini mics and we started walking around to people and asking them questions. And we had some funny questions. So like one of them was, who's your favorite country singer? Because Smith performed last night. And then we had some other ones that was like fill in the blank, the most overrated political talking point is dot, dot, dot. And then just some other like really interesting questions. We had some long form interviews that will be getting posted later. We had some short form interviews that we're going to compile and be pushing out on to TikTok and Instagram today and in the coming days. But really the meat and bread of everything was when we got into the general session. And it was super hype. I mean, they had a DJ, it felt like a high school dance, really, they were playing like, really good music, like club music. And it was just really cool. And then you just see Erica walk out and all of the sparklers go off and the confetti comes out. And her speech was absolutely beautiful. If y'all haven't heard it, I really recommend going on YouTube or wherever you can find it and listening to it because her iPad apparently went out and she did half of the speech or maybe all the speech off the dome. Um, so it was really great. And then we also heard from Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson, who had a little bit of a turf war. I guess you could say Shapiro kind of came out scorched earth against Carlson, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes. There was another guy he came out against over Epstein stuff. I can't remember his name off the top of my head. I think I got like four or five hours of sleep last night. But Shapiro, he made like this five point thing about what thought leaders are supposed to give you and they're supposed to give you truth and they're supposed to give you evidence and three other things. But personally, I got caught up in his specific discussions about these other media personnel. And his speech was good. The five points were good, even though I only remember two of them right now. But it was really interesting because Erica gave this really beautiful speech on coming together, I felt like, and on forgiveness. And then I feel like Shapiro kind of came out scorched earth. And then we heard from Russell Brand, who recently converted to Christ. He is the ex-husband of Katy Perry. And according to one of my friends that's here with me, he also starred in Bedtime Stories, if y'all have seen that movie. But he was so funny. He was such a great comedian, but also a very powerful Christian to hear him speak. And you can find his prayer on TikTok. And I'm sure you can find it on YouTube. But it was just amazing. He got down on his knees and he prayed for Christ to give him the words to say and just the ability to move people to Christ. And he suffered from addiction. So he personally offered to go to the back of the room and help people who are suffering from addiction find freedom from that after the So heard from him, heard from Michael Knowles, who just gave an amazing speech about the different factions of conservatism and how we can all come together and understanding that. And then we also heard from Tucker Carlson, who just gave an amazing, amazing speech about just his religious beliefs, his obligation to Christ first, and how he's a Republican, he's a conservative, because that's what fits into his religious beliefs. And same thing with Russell Brand. There is kind of this overwhelming and honestly, even with Shapiro, although he's not a Christian, there is this overwhelming consensus that Christ comes first, country comes second, everything else comes third, I guess you would say family comes third. And Tucker was very, very America first. He did a opportunity where he said, just basically that America first is how any country should operate. It should, you know, if you're living in America, it should be America first. If you're leaving, living in Britain, it should be Britain first. Like, when you elect your constituents, or when you elect your representative, the constituents should be represented. And those priorities should be Americans, because that's the country you're serving in. And those are the people that are electing you. And again, his speech was just absolutely amazing, regardless of some of the, I guess, flack that he caught from Shapiro. He was super graceful, and he didn't really bring it up. He like slightly acknowledged it, made a joke out of it, and just moved on. But overall, the entire event was amazing. It ended out with a Nate Smith concert, and he did just a fantastic job. I couldn't tell how many people stayed for that. I can tell you that there were 31,000 attendees at AmFest altogether. So that's remarkable. And Erica gave some amazing statistics that you can find on Instagram and in her speech. I know that there are nearly a million TPUSA members. I know that they're opening 50 chapters a day, which is amazing. They have about 4,000 chapters open, I think, 3,000 high school chapters, and 1,000 college chapters. And there are, I'm just rounding here. But it really was amazing. It was amazing to see the energy. When Nate Smith came out, it was amazing to see all the people that knew his songs. He sang a couple of covers, and it was really just a great time. And to go aside from the politics, I do want to tell everybody that first and foremost, I wore the wrong shoes, and I had to hobble around AmFest barefoot yesterday, which was not something I wanted to do. But the lesson is learned, and I will be wearing flip-flops today. And second, I took my first Waymo yesterday. So me and my friends that are here helping me out with everything, we looked at an Uber, and it was super expensive last night because it was like midnight. And we got in a Waymo, which if you don't know what that is, it is a self-driving car. And it was really cool. It was really scary because they're allergic to going on the highway. So we drove through some really not great parts of Phoenix, and that was interesting to see. We have had a very well-rounded experience. We've officially seen all of Phoenix. We have officially ridden in the Waymo. We have officially been afraid of the Waymo, although honestly it was way more convenient and way cheaper than taking an Uber. But yeah, it's just been an amazing experience today is day two, and we are going to be hearing from Ben Carson. We're going to be hearing from, I think Jack Krasovic is speaking today. Todd and Savannah Chrisley are speaking with a meet and greet opportunity. We have our first day of breakout rooms. So super, super excited. I'm so excited to recap everything for y'all tomorrow, and it's just going to be a great day. So yeah, I will see y'all on the next one. Thank y'all for joining, and thank you for staying tuned on Instagram, TikTok, X, everywhere that I know y'all are keeping up with it. So I'll see y'all in the next one.