At a three-day Turning Point USA summit in San Antonio, young Christian conservatives wrestled with fractures around Donald Trump—heavily tied to health policy shifts under RFK, Jr. and backlash against transgender rights—while one rising influencer said she w
By the time Savanna Stone had finished explaining why she once backed Donald Trump publicly, she was describing something more intimate than politics.
She said two uncles—both married—stopped talking to her after she announced she was voting for Trump. “It was my two uncles; they’re married,” said the 21-year-old social media influencer. “Because I said I was voting for Trump, they completely stopped talking to me.”
Then she added a detail that made the story feel even less stable. “I don’t even like Trump anymore, so it’s crazy.”
Stone, a rising figure in the online conservative community, has about 800,000 followers across her platforms. She primarily posts Christian relationship advice and is highly critical of feminism, pushing for traditional gender roles. Some of her statements have drawn controversy. including how she spoke to her audience after being invited as a keynote speaker at the Turning Point USA Women’s Leadership Summit—an event held over the first weekend of June in San Antonio. Texas.
Stone did not raise her concerns about Trump in her main stage address. But in an interview with CBC News after the summit, she warned that the voting block could splinter.
She has also decided not to vote in the U.S. midterm elections this November.
“He made it seem like everything was going to become more affordable; now the economy’s worse,” she said of Trump. “He promised no more wars in the Middle East and we are in a war, so it’s disappointing.”
Stone’s disillusionment lands in a moment when Trump’s national approval ratings have reportedly dropped in recent months. The backlash includes anger over the U.S.- and Israel-led war in Iran and the subsequent rise in fuel prices. Republicans, facing the prospect of trying to maintain control of U.S. Congress, are expected to rely on the same conservative coalition that helped Trump win re-election in 2024.
Turning Point USA and Trump
The summit where Stone spoke was organized by Turning Point USA. The group was founded by Charlie Kirk. the right-wing activist who was assassinated last September during an outdoor college debate in Utah. Turning Point USA is now run by Kirk’s widow. Erika Kirk. who has emerged as a central figure in the organization’s direction.
The group has leaned into modern political organizing aimed at younger voters, building momentum through college campus outreach events and programs. Trump has credited Turning Point USA with helping him get re-elected.
At the Women’s Leadership Summit in San Antonio, feminism was a recurring theme among many speakers. Turning Point USA’s efforts to draw in a new generation of young conservatives were on full display, even as the women around Stone’s shadowed questions about Trump.
The gathering drew about 3,000 women—mostly students—and despite Stone’s criticism, support for Trump and the Republican Party was visible throughout the event.
Two issues emerged as the reasons many women said they were still sticking with Trump this fall.
One was changes to health policy associated with Robert F Kennedy Jr., commonly referred to as RFK. Many of the agenda planks under “Make America Healthy Again” have sparked backlash elsewhere, but those shifts played better with the women interviewed at the conference.
Alexus DeGraaf, 31, from Columbus, Ohio, said she liked the idea that RFK could argue that toxins in foods are a problem.
“I really like how [Trump] is allowing RFK to say. ‘OK. we have a lot of toxins in our foods. ’” DeGraaf said. She is a seamstress and costume designer by trade and has recently started offering support services to women as a prayer minister. “We need to focus on healing our people so they can make quality decisions for their children and their communities.”.
The second issue was transgender rights.
Brooke Foxworthy, 48, a stay-at-home mom who recently moved with her family from California to Texas, said she did not want a party that would allow her son to make what she described as irreversible medical decisions.
“I don’t want a party that’s going to tell my son he can cut off his penis,” Foxworthy said.
Stephanie Collins, 55, of Denver, Colo., set up a kiosk at the conference to sell sequined jackets, vests and hats. She said she didn’t want schools to teach children about the existence of the transgender community.
“Go back to reading, writing, arithmetic,” Collins said. “I don’t need you to teach them values; that’s my job as a parent and my job in the church.”
The voting rights fight and the fissure Stone talks about
What happens when Trump loyalty fractures is not just about who votes for whom. Stone also represents a more radical argument about who should be allowed to vote at all.
She said she doesn’t think women should vote. She argued for a one-vote-per-household election system, saying that because women tend to support more liberal candidates, changing the voting system would result in a more Christian and conservative America.
“That’s just one of the opinions that I hold, because I think that it would be better for society,” Stone said. “Now, is that a hill I’m going to die on and run for office and try to complete? No,” she added. “That’s Ideal Savanna’s world; that’s not our current world.”
Several women at the conference told CBC News they were open to the idea, even if it meant losing their own right to vote, as long as the end result would be a more conservative country.
Foxworthy said Stone has a “very big point.” She said she has voted in every single election since she was 18 years old and plans to vote in the midterms coming up this fall—but would consider the strategy described by Stone.
“If my husband is the head of the household, I am the neck, and we work very cohesively together,” Foxworthy said. “If he was voting on behalf of our household, I would be fine with that.”
She said she’d even be comfortable if her daughter lost her right to vote, as long as political values aligned.
“I also know she’s going to marry a biblical man, and that they would also be in line,” Foxworthy said.
KayElah Gardner, a 19-year-old nursing student from San Diego, Calif., said she would give up her vote if it meant banning abortion.
“I feel like with my mindset, I would want to put my vote in,” Gardner said. “But … I think getting rid of that would actually help women more.”
She tempered that by adding, “Hopefully that would never happen.”
Most of the women who spoke with CBC News, however, treated the voting rights idea as something for the fringe.
Lainie Shields, a 20-year-old college student from Huntington Beach, Calif., said she believed the best way forward was education, not disenfranchisement.
“I think that the best thing that we can do is hold conferences like this … to educate liberal women and hopefully swing them to the conservative side,” Shields said.
Emmy Mills, 20, a college student from Greenfield, Ind., pointed to online chatter about women’s voting rights.
“So many Christian influencers do say that they would prefer a world where they can choose to vote for the household. but I think it’s 2026.… Not all of our destinies are to get married and have kids. ” Mills said. “As a conservative, I do really embrace tradition, and so I do enjoy the democracy system that we have.”.
There is no clear line yet between what Stone says is splintering—and what other women insist is still holding.
But at the summit, the tension was there in plain sight: women defending their conservative choices while debating what those choices should mean for the right to vote, and what happens when loyalty to the party starts to wobble.
Turning Point USA Savanna Stone Donald Trump women’s voting rights RFK Jr Make America Healthy Again transgender rights conservative influencers Erika Kirk San Antonio summit