By Ollie Mintz | Guest Contributor, Class of 2022
I founded the TPUSA chapter at Baylor during my freshman year. There was no chapter and no infrastructure. I spent three years fighting through charter denials before receiving recognition on August 22, 2021.
Within weeks, I hosted Charlie Kirk at the Waco Convention Center. Charlie was admitted to Baylor before founding TPUSA. He met with President Ken Starr, who told him to pursue his passion instead. That meeting helped launch the organization. Baylor is part of the origin story. The room was packed, open to the public and the press was welcome.
I have no current ties to TPUSA. I graduated and I’m now a law student at Creighton. But when I saw the April 22 tour stop approaching, I reached out to Peter Fernandez, the current chapter president.
He never responded.
Fernandez told KWTX the event was “two years in the making.” It wasn’t. He became president around fall 2024. By his own words in this newspaper in October 2025, the chapter was “almost dead” when he took over. The revival came from Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September 2025, generating over 200 membership requests overnight.
His window of leading an active chapter was roughly seven months.
The execution collapsed. Over 4,500 registered after the event was marketed publicly. Hours before doors opened, tickets were voided. TPUSA blamed Baylor. Baylor said the students-only policy was communicated from the start. Trump Jr. was swapped for Ken Paxton the day before. The chapter president declined calls from this newspaper. TPUSA denied media credentials to every outlet, including The Lariat.
Four hundred thirty-eight students checked in to a room that seats 2,200. Black drape hid the empty back half. The balcony sat dark. Supporters who drove hours were turned away while seats sat vacant. Leaked audio showed the chapter president mocking fellow Baylor students at the counter-event as “the ops.”
I built something real at this university. If I were still carrying a TPUSA title, what happened on April 22 would have been enough for me to walk away. You don’t fight for free speech by banning student journalists.
You don’t build a movement by turning away supporters who drove hours to be there. And you don’t honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy mocking fellow students in a half-empty room.
Ollie Mintz, Class of 2022, is a Baylor alum and the founder of TPUSA at Baylor.
