5,000 young conservatives gather in Tampa for Student Action Summit

Student Action Summit is underway

FOX 13's Jennifer Kveglis went to the Tampa Convention Center where over 5,000 students gathered for Turning Point USA's annual Student Action Summit.

TAMPA - Protesters marched outside the Tampa Convention Center as the second day of Turning Point USA's annual Student Action Summit for young conservatives was underway.

Turning Point USA was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk to promote conservative values on college campuses.

The annual Student Action Summit has become one of the group's signature events, geared towards high school and college students looking to promote conservative values on campus. 

The summit offers networking opportunities, leadership workshops, and guest speakers like Donald Trump Jr., Tucker Carlson, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and more.

Dino Fantegrossi, University of Arkanas Chapter President, said, "In general, what we're trying to do on our college campuses is promote constitutional values and freedom of speech being amongst them. We're also very pro-gun ownership. We believe in limited government; small businesses are very important."

The other side:

The Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society organized the protest against the event. Dozens from the group and members of the community met outside Tampa City Hall on Saturday afternoon to make signs and banners that read "No ICE on campus" and "Defeat the Trump agenda."

Oliver Cheese, a student at FSU and member of the organization's Tallahassee chapter, drove 5.5 hours to participate. He said, "Since Donald Trump has taken office, the attacks on education have been unparalleled. He has slashed funding from FSU's neighbor University, Florida's only black HBCU, Florida A&M University. He's cut millions and millions of dollars of funding from FSU, USF, UCF."

The group condemned the presence of ICE and the crackdown on illegal immigrants on campuses.

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He added, "The general attitude on campus among latino students, among immigrant students, that their rights are under attack. That they're under threat of being deported, of having ICE raid them in their dorms."

Protesters like Cheese denounced the summit's co-founder, "Charlie Kirk has said in the past that MLK was awful that passing the Civil Rights Act was a mistake. He's spoken out against the legalization of gay marriage. He's spoken out against transgender people in the United States."

The group was met with about the same number of counter-protesters, many of whom were also summit attendees, like Ava Lacey, Secretary of the University of Arkanas chapter. 

She said, "We just really want to bring people together. We don't care where you're from. How much money you make. What the color of your skin is. None of that. We just want to promote constitutional rights and free speech."

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