Turning Point USA successfully led an effort to recall Mesa City Councilmember Julie Spilsbury on Tuesday in Arizona. Dorean Taylor, the TPUSA-endorsed candidate, won the recall election with 52.78% as of Tuesday evening.
Spilsbury had endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, despite being a Republican herself. More than 15,000 ballots were cast in the 2025 recall election, over 3,500 more than in the 2024 election that Spilsbury won.
“In Arizona we are routing out the garbage,” Tyler Bowyer, COO of Turning Point Action, wrote online, “Replacing Julie Spilsbury, captain of the Republicans for Kamala ship.”
TPUSA organizers had spearheaded the initial petition to recall Spilsbury after she won reelection in 2024 with 65% of the vote. “The recall would never have been successful without Turning Point’s employees,” Spilsbury told local media on Tuesday.
Beyond endorsing Harris, Spilsbury also appeared in an ad for Sen. Ruben Gallego’s (D-AZ) campaign in 2024. “I am supporting Ruben Gallego,” Spilsbury said, “I don’t need to be a Democrat to know he has the character to move Arizona forward.”
Supporters of Taylor also targeted Spilsbury for voting to raise councilmembers’ salaries, house the homeless in a motel, and increase utility costs.
BALLOT MEASURES: WHAT PASSED AND WHAT DIDN’T IN THE 2025 ELECTIONS
Moreover, the recalled councilmember faced reproach for supporting a nondiscrimination ordinance that included protections for LGBTQ residents. Critics said that the law would allow men into women’s restrooms in its clause prohibiting discrimination in “public accommodation” or “housing” based on “gender identity.
“When good people run for office just because I want to serve my community, and then this is what happens to me,” Spanberger said, “Why would anyone want to run when you have groups like Turning Point that can go out there and put up thousands of signs and send nasty emails and tell lies about you?”
