TAMPA, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump took center stage Saturday night for day two of Turning Point USA's 'Student Action Summit'.
The Summit is all about mobilizing young people to not just join the Republican Party but also start organizations aimed at reaching more young people.
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk led a panel discussion with three young republicans running for office, Florida's Anthony Sabotini, Anna Paulina Luna, and New Hampshire's Karoline Leavittt.
Kirk and the panelists spoke about voting out Democrats and longstanding Republicans to usher in a new wave of the Republican Party.
“You just heard from three young Republican leaders. To the older Republican Party, if you’re watching, your time is up,” Kirk said.
The second half of the day brought out Donald Trump Jr. and his fiance Kimberly Guilfoyle. Day two of the summit wrapped with an hour and a half long speech from former President Donald Trump.
“Young people love us. They love our policies. They love common sense,” he said.
President Trump spoke at length about his time as president. The former president said the future of the Republican Party is bright with the mobilization of more young people.
“Your generation will not let them do what they want to do to you, which is bad, bad things. We’re going to very soon take back our country,” he said.
An Axios Generation Lab Next Cities Index found Tampa is the second most sought-after city for young Republicans.
ABC Action News Political Analyst Dr. Susan McManus said summits like this one is how younger Republicans are making their voices heard.
"It's just a conservative are historically a lot quieter. And they're not really too much into protesting. They're more about these kinds of actions. And forming these groups on campus have like-minded students to go out and talk to other students. And that's a big difference," she said.
Dr. McManus says the world of politics is evolving on both sides, and it's all because of young people.
"Both the Republican and the Democratic Parties have really growing and very strong young components. And a lot of that reflects that the younger generations are now replacing the boomers and the older ones. And they're bringing in a whole different kind of energy, a whole different way of communicating, totally different set of priorities. But both parties, young people in both parties really just want to make the country better. They just have different ways of going about it," she added.
She said now is the time for the Democratic Party to mobilize.
"Democrats know that they have to start reaching their younger population and breaking into the independence. And here you have the Republicans say look right here in Tampa, Florida, we've got 5,000 young people who are conservatives to the nth degree who are going back to their high schools and colleges and going to start getting people engaged. This is a big moment for Republican young people as well as the Democratic young they are emboldened by both parties needing them."
