Mariam Hassan, a UO sophomore, is running in the 2024 ASUO presidential election. (Samantha Karambelas/Ethos)
Campus Victory Project, a subsidiary of Turning Point USA, identified the University of Oregon as one of the schools it is targeting for its expansion.
Turning Point USA is an alt-right organization that, according to its website, seeks to create “the most organized, active, and powerful conservative grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses across the country.”
A leaked 25-page CVP brochure states that “Our first and primary goal is to commandeer the top office of Student Body President at each of the most recognizable and influential American universities.” Schools included in the Big Ten and Pac-12 Conferences — including UO — are identified as primary targets for their expansion. It is unclear when this brochure was created.
The CVP brochure outlines that through selecting leaders to support and finance, they will have direct oversight and influence over more than “$500 million in university tuition and student fee appropriations.”
The brochure also outlines CVP’s goal to “defund progressive 501(c)3 and (c)4 organizations that claim official ‘Student Association’ title or under ‘PIRG’ and receive automatic dues through tuition and fees.” At UO, that includes groups such as the Oregon Student Association and OSPIRG Students. Another goal identified in the brochure is to “start Pro-America, Pro-Israel and Free Market week-long events on campus.”
CVP outlines a “scalable victory structure” in this brochure, which provides a flowchart for the organizational structure of their plan. The plan outlines how field recruiters are connected to their identified “target schools,” including UO, and are assigned to bring students into leadership development opportunities.
(A brochure created by the Campus Victory Project.)
Since being founded in 2015, CVP has targeted numerous student government campaigns at major U.S. universities, including Wichita State University in March 2022, Oregon State University in February and Sacramento State University just last month.
(A brochure created by the Campus Victory Project.)
It’s no coincidence that CVP targeted UO’s student election.
CVP takes two main avenues to involve itself in student government elections. One is through various, fully paid-for invitational leadership conferences that happen nationwide. The second is through grants and funding provided to candidates to bolster their campaigns.
On Dec. 16 and 17, 2023, two UO students were invited to attend CVP’s Prospective Leadership Retreat by recruiters who made no mention of Turning Point USA. Now the pair, Mariam Hassan and Kikachi Akpakwu, are running for ASUO president and vice president. Hassan and Akpakwu met at the retreat and have referenced the conference throughout their campaign. They seek to represent the student body in the 2024-25 school year through their slate, OurUO.
According to Hassan and Akpakwu, the Prospective Leadership Retreat made no mention of political affiliations or motives from the beginning of their invitations from recruiters through to the end of the conference. Because of this, at the time they attended the conference, Hassan and Akpakwu say they were uninformed about the retreat’s affiliation with both CVP and Turning Point USA.
“There was no political affiliation whatsoever,” Hassan said. “I had no idea that this conference was connected to [Turning Point] because even when we were at the conference, there was no politics talk.”
Hassan also said that she was just recently made aware of CVP’s affiliation with Turning Point.
“I, as a woman of color and Muslim, would never support an organization like that, considering my experiences in this country,” Hassan said.
Akpakwu added that there were no hints of political messaging or bias at the conference they attended.
“All the students [at the conference] came from various political affiliations — very Democratic-leaning people, and there were Republican-leaning people,” Akpakwu said. “For me, I thought it was a space where no matter what your political affiliation was, it was to help all students feel empowered to be leaders in the government.”
Akpakwu also added that she didn’t anticipate her transparency about attending the conference would lead to speculation. “I was very vocal throughout this whole process about meeting Mariam at that conference because I thought that it was a really great and inspiring story. That’s when everything really unraveled about this affiliation that Campus Victory Project had,” she said.
Speculations arise about the source of OurUO’s funding
After a revised financial form was submitted to the ASUO Elections Board on April 4 detailing the contributions made to the OurUO slate, suspicions arose about the source of the funding, especially when considering Hassan and Akpakwu’s presence at the Prospective Leadership Conference.
These speculations led to an official grievance filed by Taliek Lopez-DuBoff, a member of the Flock Forward slate. The grievance contained speculation about OurUO’s involvement with CVP through the Prospective Leadership Retreat. The ASUO Elections Board conducted an investigation to determine the source of their funding.
After reviewing bank statements from Hassan and Akpakwu, the decision from the Elections Board made on April 4 stated that the OurUO slate did not violate any election rules about failure to identify contributions made to a campaign. The Elections Board also dismissed any speculation about OurUO’s funding being associated with Turning Point USA and CVP.
In a conversation with the Daily Emerald, ASUO Elections Board Chair Grigorii Malakhov confirmed these decisions made by the Elections Board. Malakhov also said that certain elements of the investigation fell outside the board’s purview.
“We were presented with bank statements that we saw and we verified, that we know was made out of their [Hassan’s and Akpakwu’s] accounts,” Malakhov said. “How it got into the accounts, unfortunately, that’s not our job … and we are in no position to make that investigation because it falls out of our authority.”
Hassan and Akpakwu confirmed to the Emerald that the contributions they made to their campaign came directly from their personal accounts.
“We were aware that there is a process you can go through to receive funding [from the conference],” Hassan said, “However, we decided that we didn’t want to receive funding because we felt like it would make the most sense to have everything be through the university and through students. Our name, our slogan, all of our designs, all of our videos, our photography, all of that was done through students at the University of Oregon.”
Hassan and Akpakwu were transparent with the Elections Board about their bank statements as soon as the grievance regarding their slate’s funding was issued.
“We understood where the grievance was coming from and why people were worried,” Hassan said, “and so we personally opened up my bank statements to the election board.”
Malakhov also cautioned against “harassment and bullying” of the candidates over their incidental affiliation with CVP. A similarly-worded statement was posted to ASUO’s official Instagram story the evening of April 5.
“This is the harassment of people, the bullying of people for their beliefs and whatever they do,” Malakhov said. “For not knowing, for doing things in the past. It’s just so out of control right now.”
According to Max Jensen, the presidential candidate for ASUO from the UO Student Power slate, a candidate from the Student Power slate has since left the campaign due to concerns over involvement from CVP and Turning Point USA. “The whole thing was really unnerving to me,” he said. “This is the most absurd campaign season that I’ve ever seen.”
Hassan and Akpakwu say they are willing to take full responsibility for their actions moving forward and said that their slate has no affiliations with CVP or Turning Point USA.
“I hope that, at the end of the day, everyone is willing to listen and to look into our OurUO itself, to the people in OurUO, the candidates running, and to the things that we say and the things that we want to pursue because that’s really what matters here,” Akpakwu said.
Hassan said that rumors and speculation can be personally harmful, depending on how they’re delivered.
“Especially if you look at the heads of the slate being two women of color,” she said. “It’s damaging to assume things off the bat, even though it has already been pointed out that the funding has been from Kiki and I.”
Hassan also emphasized the importance of listening to individuals and making an effort to understand everyone’s perspective rather than spreading speculation and rumors.
The controversy emerges amid a tumultuous week for ASUO elections. Another slate, UO Student Power, was suspended from campaigning on April 5, amid allegations from Hassan and Akpakwu that UO Student Power pressured and harassed UO Students for Justice in Palestine to endorse them.
Later that night, UO Student Power campaign manager Ian Finn filed a grievance against Hassan and Akpakwu, accusing them of including “manipulated/edited text messages” in their grievance. While the ASUO Elections Board has not formally ruled on either complaint, UO Student Power’s suspension was partially lifted on April 6, allowing them to resume online campaigning.
Hassan said she hopes this experience will encourage students to avoid speculating on candidates’ intentions.
“That is what prevents people, really, from running for student government and from running for anything on campus because people are always afraid of feeling targeted,” Hassan said.
Cash Kowalski, a presidential candidate for the Flock Forward slate, declined to comment for this article.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
