Israel is regarded as an ally, if not the top US ally, while radical Islam is seen as the main threat facing America today, the majority of Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference straw poll respondents said.
Of the over 30,000 respondents to the survey conducted at the conservative activist event over the weekend, 33.3% described Israel as a “top ally.” 53.4% of participants viewed Israel as “one ally of many,” while 13.3% did not view Israel as an ally, according to results published on social media by TPUSA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet.
In a 2023 AmericaFest poll, respondents were asked whether they supported providing aid to Israel and Ukraine. At the same time, very few respondents supported providing aid beyond food and medicine to Ukraine, over half – 55% – supported supplying Israel with military aid, and a minority – 44.2% – supported providing military aid with combat advisers. Moreover, 20% of respondents approved of military aid with US soldiers on the ground in an active involvement.
Questionees ranked radical Islam as the greatest threat facing the US, followed narrowly by Marxism and mass migration. In the ranked distribution poll, radical Islam received 31,008 points, Marxism 30,387, and mass migration 28,223.
Questions asked of US foreign policy on Israel
American foreign policy toward Israel was repeatedly raised by speakers and in audience questions during the Thursday to Sunday conference.
Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro leveled harsh criticism against fellow speakers and political commentator Candace Owens for conspiracies about the assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, which included theories pertaining to Israel’s involvement.
A conference attendee challenged Shapiro by raising the 1967 USS Liberty incident, but Shapiro dismissed it as irrelevant to modern foreign policy debates.
Pundit Megyn Kelly said that she did not believe Owens' theories about Israel’s involvement, but added that she did not have a responsibility to denounce her either.
Kelly said in a panel that the issue of Israel had begun to divide the conservative movement since before Kirk’s murder, with pressure on pro-Israel conservatives to censor or call out dissenters.
War Room podcast host Steve Bannon was also criticized by Shapiro. Bannon shot back that Shapiro and others were supporters of an “Israel first” agenda that prioritized supposed Israeli expansionism over US interests.
The event featured a theological discussion on Israel with Pastor Douglas Wilson and BlazeTV host Steve Deace. Both argued against audience questions and accused Israel of war crimes.
Former hostage Omer Shem Tov also spoke at the event.
The prioritization of radical Islam as a significant threat came as political commentator Tucker Carlson’s AmericaFest speech criticized those “attacking” Muslims, claiming that criticisms of Islam were distractions from other issues.
“I’m a Christian, not a Muslim. I know there’s a lot of effort to claim I’m a secret jihadi. I’m not. You should not attack people on those grounds. And you’re seeing it from Republicans,” Carlson said on the first day of the event. “What you’re doing is trying to divide the country.”
The informal poll also indicated that the vast majority of respondents (63.9%) wanted the conservative movement’s top priority to be winning the 2026 midterms, with voter integrity measures (9.3%) and affordability (8.1%) trailing far behind.
Immigration also emerged as a dominant theme. The poll found 89.5% of respondents supported a moratorium on new immigration to the US.
The straw poll showed that, for 2028, US Vice President JD Vance is currently the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, winning 84.2% of the vote. Sen. Marco Rubio is placed second at 4.8%, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 2.9%.
Vance closed out the conference on Sunday, as TPUSA memorialized founder Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated earlier this year, even as internal feuds threatened to eclipse parts of the event.