{"id":28693,"date":"2026-04-15T21:41:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T21:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/28693\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T21:41:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T21:41:18","slug":"protesters-rally-against-tpusa-tour-featuring-jd-vance-city-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/28693\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters rally against TPUSA tour featuring JD Vance | City News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protesters gathered in front of the Classic Center Tuesday<\/a> in response to Turning Point USA\u2019s (TPUSA) \u201cThis is the Turning Point\u201d tour featuring Vice President JD Vance. The protest was hosted by Young Democrats of UGA (YDUGA), Young Democratic Socialists of America at UGA (YDSA UGA) and Indivisible GA 10, and featured multiple speakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just letting the administration know we\u2019re fed up,\u201d Luke Trandel, the political director of YDUGA, said, referencing a rising cost of living and the war in Iran. \u201cIf they\u2019re gonna come to our town, we\u2019re gonna let them know how we feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protestors expressed their disapproval holding signs bearing phrases including \u201cRead History Books\u201d and \u201cYou know what you are,\u201d while shouting \u201cNo Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!\u201d as attendees entered the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that Erika Kirk and JD Vance stand for \u2014 I can\u2019t be a student here knowing that this is going on, and not at least try to do my part in [preventing] it,\u201d Amanda Abeldanez, a junior environmental health science major, said.<\/p>\n

Athens resident Darby Harris attended the protest because she didn\u2019t want the TPUSA event \u201cto represent [her] town.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to know that Athens stands against what they’re standing for,\u201d Harris said. \u201cWe’re against the war, we’re against fascism, we’re against an authoritarian rule where they’re taking the rights away from the people by not getting congressional approval for everything they’re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris specifically expressed anger with the war in Iran, arguing that Vance is \u201cwasting time\u201d in Athens when he could be negotiating an end to the war. She cited approximately how much the war is costing the U.S. per second, which according to The Intercept<\/a>, is between $11,500 and $23,000.<\/p>\n

The group eventually moved to a blocked off area in front of Akins Ford Arena, continuing to chant phrases and sing “Our love for each other will carry us through.” A few attendees from the TPUSA event trickled out early and walked through the crowd of protesters, including Emma Gail, a sophomore bioscience major.<\/p>\n

Gail said she left because \u201c[Vance] was talking nothing but nonsense and [gave] very PR answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe won\u2019t answer anything that has anything to do with America [or] the war in Gaza,\u201d Gail said. \u201cHe\u2019s only going to answer what he wants to answer. He\u2019s not gonna answer anything about the Pope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collin Young, who was asked to leave the event after he yelled \u201cJesus Christ doesn\u2019t support genocide\u201d at Vance, also stood near the protesters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I came with the intention to disrupt, but I realized that I wanted to \u2026 [after Vance was] justifying war from a Christian lens,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

As the event came to a close, protestors \u201cboo-ed\u201d attendees leaving, chanting \u201cshame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspen David, co-chair of YDSA UGA, emphasized sustained movement as a key goal of the protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things that actually matter, the things that create real change, are sustained movements,\u201d David said. \u201c[We\u2019re] just trying to build up those popular movements, because that’s really how we are able to create and leverage power as the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trandel agreed, highlighting Trump\u2019s low approval rates and what is at stake in the upcoming midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this all adds up to us taking the House and Senate back in November,\u201d Trandel said. \u201cI think this is a success just being out here, and I think we’ll see the benefits of our labor further on in November.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesters gathered in front of the Classic Center Tuesday in response to Turning Point USA\u2019s (TPUSA) \u201cThis is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[12224,12975,3704,3689,19405,18813,11638,3086,12,3684,3688,3737,12601,3667,12980,19403,169,168,3749,3654,18818,5672,3681,19404,51,3665,3652,3656,3676,5770,3660,18812,19406,3677,19402,19401,7267,3680,100,3745,11985,17,3710],"class_list":{"0":"post-28693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jd-vance","8":"tag-activism","9":"tag-american-conspiracy-theorists","10":"tag-american-nationalism","11":"tag-american-nationalists","12":"tag-american-political-philosophy","13":"tag-anti-lgbtq-activism","14":"tag-authoritarianism","15":"tag-cost-of-living","16":"tag-donald-trump","17":"tag-donald-trump-controversies","18":"tag-executive-branch-of-the-government-of-the-united-states","19":"tag-far-right-politics","20":"tag-fascism","21":"tag-first-presidency-of-donald-trump","22":"tag-florida-republicans","23":"tag-indivisible-movement","24":"tag-james-david-vance","25":"tag-jd-vance","26":"tag-mike-pence","27":"tag-political-career-of-donald-trump","28":"tag-political-controversies","29":"tag-political-events","30":"tag-political-ideologies","31":"tag-political-movements","32":"tag-politics","33":"tag-politics-of-the-united-states","34":"tag-presidencies-of-donald-trump","35":"tag-presidencies-of-the-united-states","36":"tag-presidency-of-the-united-states","37":"tag-protests","38":"tag-public-sphere","39":"tag-reactionary","40":"tag-right-wing-politics","41":"tag-second-presidency-of-donald-trump","42":"tag-social-conflict","43":"tag-social-movements","44":"tag-society-of-the-united-states","45":"tag-trump-administration-controversies","46":"tag-trump-family","47":"tag-trumpism","48":"tag-turning-point-usa","49":"tag-united-states","50":"tag-united-states-presidential-administration-controversies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}