Valuetainment - “Let's Work With TPUSA” - Heritage Foundation CEO REVEALS Charlie Kirk Alliance To Reach Gen Z

00:00:00.000 in the NBA when they do the collective bargaining agreement. I don't know if you're a sports guy or

00:00:03.740 not. I'm a huge sports fan. Okay, who do you like? Who are your teams? Well, Texas Longhorns,

00:00:07.520 anything they play. Okay, good. Well, you guys got a good quarterback. My son wants to meet him. He's

00:00:12.380 a great guy. Big fan of his. Yeah, that's what I hear from everybody. But so look at different

00:00:17.360 teams, different sports, and think about it from the standpoint of which teams would you buy?

00:00:22.640 I wouldn't touch the NBA today. I just don't trust what they're doing. But in sports, each sport is

00:00:28.860 different. You got owner, fan, player, right? NBA became two-player friendly. When it became

00:00:34.820 two-player friendly, the players owned it. All-Star game sucks. They've lost the dunk contest. People 1.00

00:00:40.300 don't even watch. It's the first time I didn't watch an All-Star game. It's horrible. The regular

00:00:44.020 season games suck. There is no defense. You know, they're averaging 120 points a game, which 0.99

00:00:48.700 we're accustomed to 89 points, 95 points a game back in the 90s. You sound like a Knicks fan. Yeah,

00:00:54.480 well, you know, Bows, Cavs, you know, although I'm a diehard Laker fan up until LeBron showed

00:01:00.140 up. I was trying to trigger you. I'm a Celtics fan. Are you really? Okay, that's good. So

00:01:03.020 Lakers-Knicks, I was there the last time we beat you guys in Game 7. Oh, come on now.

00:01:06.940 Kobe, I was at the game. I took my passer, Dudley Rutherford. We had a great game. What

00:01:11.020 a game. What a great game, yes. For us, you guys had a hard time that day, but you now have

00:01:15.580 more than we do. We have one more chip than we do now. I was just growing to like you. Come

00:01:19.220 on now. But when you think about these things, you know, and you watch how NFL does it, which

00:01:26.060 NFL protects the small markets and you get a superstar, he's going to stay with you for 15,

00:01:33.660 20 years. You're not going to lose him. You go to the NBA, God forbid you bitch and moan, 1.00

00:01:38.680 trade him or else, you know, I'm going to go on social media. I think NBA, NFL has it figured out. 0.99

00:01:44.540 I think MLB is doing okay, although they're allowing Dodgers to get a little bit too powerful.

00:01:48.940 The bigger guys. To you, who is your number one? Okay. So you got player, owners, fan. Who

00:01:57.940 is the number one customer to Heritage? The American people. The people are the number

00:02:02.660 one. Donors or the people? No, the people. Now, some of the, but I say people, I really

00:02:08.260 mean everyday Americans. People who are small business owners, blue collar workers, grandmas,

00:02:14.740 whoever they are. Now, of course, several hundred thousand of them will also be

00:02:18.660 donors to us, you know, for the most part, small donors, and we very much treasure them.

00:02:23.040 So in no way am I being dismissive or ungrateful, obviously, but the reason Heritage has been so

00:02:28.760 successful, the reason people call us, other people say this about us, we try not to get engaged in this,

00:02:34.380 call us the most influential conservative think tank in the world is because we put the American

00:02:38.560 people first. And so I'll tell you a story that underscores this. A few years ago,

00:02:42.660 four years ago now, I was asked to come into a meeting of Republican senators to try to, by the

00:02:50.680 conservative senators in the Republican conference, stop the end of your omnibus, which is just fancy

00:02:55.680 Washington speak for spending more money that we don't have. And I went in and I said, I'm not here

00:03:00.320 on behalf of my colleagues who are budget scholars, although I rely on their work. I'm not here on

00:03:06.340 behalf of our board, although I'm grateful for their service. And I'm definitely not here on behalf of,

00:03:10.580 you know, my importance, whatever that may be or not be. I'm here on behalf of Heritage members.

00:03:15.720 And I have to speak on their behalf and say, you have to stop spending this money.

00:03:20.140 That mindset that has allowed us to be influential because we then pair that with what I think is the

00:03:28.680 policy brilliance of our colleagues. And then some, in some cases, policymakers who are willing to become

00:03:35.520 our spokesmen on things.

00:03:37.060 What is the average age? That's what I'm searching, Brian.

00:03:39.360 And what is the average age of a donor at Heritage right now?

00:03:42.200 Probably late 60s.

00:03:43.560 Oh, really?

00:03:44.320 Yeah.

00:03:44.800 Is that pretty accurate with TPUSA as well or no?

00:03:48.260 Probably not. I've talked to Charlie about that, although I forget what theirs is. And

00:03:52.960 part of that is Heritage is one of the two or three largest membership-driven organizations.

00:04:00.660 And because a lot of that is through snail mail, that donor base will skew older.

00:04:06.060 Yeah, I'm curious. And the reason why I'm asking this question is the youth. So what are you doing

00:04:14.040 to win over the youth? Because if you look at what's going on right now, so even with the topic of

00:04:22.040 social media that we started off with, right, you'll see these guys going viral. And, you know,

00:04:29.160 the Gaza situation, Palestine and Israel and genocide, we've all seen these debates on

00:04:35.140 Piers Morgan. You've been on a couple of the debates, right, yourself. So how are you,

00:04:40.180 what is your plan or Heritage's plan on hear them out, maybe speak to them, maybe see why they see

00:04:50.160 the way they say the things they say? What is Heritage's plan with the youth?

00:04:55.420 Two big things. And I appreciate the question, because I'm still a teacher at heart. And so

00:04:59.300 while, you know, I'm probably not the best as a Gen Xer to be the messenger, I have a great passion

00:05:05.080 for my colleagues who are engaged in that. But two big things. On the one hand, be us. Be authentic.

00:05:11.320 Which is not an arrogant comment.

00:05:13.280 Did you say be us?

00:05:14.160 Be us. Be Heritage.

00:05:15.540 Yeah, yeah. Got it.

00:05:16.240 What do we offer the conservative movement? What do we offer the United States of America? I think the

00:05:19.820 best policies that are out there. And a lot of those policies have to do with issues that young

00:05:24.820 Americans care deeply about, like affordability, like a much more restrained national security

00:05:30.480 posture. But the second thing is, we've had to learn to adapt to the environment we're in. And so

00:05:35.460 we have invested a lot in not just social media, but what I would say is to be present. And so even

00:05:42.520 in my own speaking engagements, engagement with organizations around the country, we have a

00:05:47.700 preference for those organizations that are working to reach the younger electorate. Why?

00:05:52.580 Because we've pretty much figured out how to talk to people who are my age and older. And not that

00:05:58.100 we'll always take that for granted, right? But we know how to do that. Let's go work with Turning

00:06:02.360 Point. This is why Charlie and I became good friends. It's why we continue to collaborate with

00:06:06.280 Turning Point.

00:06:06.660 How do you guys collaborate? How does Heritage and the...

00:06:09.220 A couple of ways. It'll sound a little simplistic, but it does speak to a larger trend. We try to do

00:06:15.080 co-branded events. And so that we're trying to get our base and their base at the same event,

00:06:19.820 although they're good at both of those. And the second thing is, I mentioned earlier in our

00:06:23.940 conversation, this issues advocacy part of Heritage called Heritage Action. It's a 501c4. It can do more

00:06:29.960 generally defined political things. We do some collaboration with Turning Point Action on some

00:06:36.300 of those issue campaigns. And it's allowed us to take some of the tactics that they have used and

00:06:42.020 perfected with younger Americans and integrate that into our own work.

00:06:45.920 Who is the biggest spokesperson for Heritage that's in their 20s?

00:06:52.040 Well, this... Emma Waters, which might be early 30s, but Emma Waters is in that category. And what's

00:06:59.480 wonderful about Emma is that she's become, I think, the leading scholar on family policy,

00:07:05.080 on right-minded ways, including policy and culture, to witness to family life, and the role that

00:07:12.640 federal government may play in that.

00:07:14.760 Mm-hmm.

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Valuetainment - February 22, 2026

“Let's Work With TPUSA” - Heritage Foundation CEO REVEALS Charlie Kirk Alliance To Reach Gen Z

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