Meet Tyler Bowyer. He runs a technology firm that provides an app for Republican/Conservative campaigns. He's also a Committeeman for Arizona to the Republican National Committee. And he's the COO of Turning Point USA. And he runs the officially sanctioned political activities by Turning Point. That makes Mr. Bowyer a direct competitor to Mr. Ryun.
Why are we talking about these two men, these two competitors? Because Mr. Ryun thinks Tyler Bowyer is a hypocrite. You see, Mr. Bowyer, in his role(s) with Turning Point USA hosted a targeted list of Republicans from specific counties around the country. He called the event the "RNC." No, really. R-N-C. "Restoring National Confidence." He (and his boss, Charlie Kirk) flew in their targets from around the country to attend their event a week before the real RNC meeting.
Mr. Ryun is referencing this article from Politico. Mr. Ryun wants people to know this about his business competitor:
You see, Tyler Bowyer, back in January when this event in Las Vegas took place, was insinuating that anyone in RNC leadership, like himself, who won't turn over their tax returns to a stranger is probably a crook. And so Mr. Ryun challenged Bowyer to pass his own test. Seems fair. How did Bowyer take that?
If that's difficult to read, this is what Tyler said, "Happy to! My income is all reported publicly on 990s."
and
"He forgets my employer is Turning Point. A company that is pushing his business to do better he thinks I make money from, but I do not. We are building tools to help make GOTV better for our activists! Hard for people to believe I have helped do that for free."
and when directly asked for HIS 1040s and the schedules C and K, Bowyer punts.
"Yeah of course the Chair of the RNC should do that to the executive committee of the RNC.
Why would it be acceptable to not know how the chair of your party makes money during their term? Many other instances in business require disclosures and internal confirmation."
When Tyler says "We are building tools to help make GOTV better for our activists," he's creating more questions, including legal problems, than he answers. We know Bowyer runs Superfeed Technologies and that firm has provided a valuable app to multiple organizations, but most of his customers don't pay for the app. That's illegal under campaign finance law in both Arizona and Federal races. Then we get to the inherent coordination that must occur when a vendor is a PAC and the person leading the chimera is a party official.
Ponder this. Here is RNC Committeeman/Tech Bro CEO/ PAC Prez Tyler Bowyer criticizing the spending priorities of partisan entities toward contested elections in 2022. But why does he think his TPUSA resources as found on the 990 tax form apply to this?
Tyler really does lean on the 990s as an answer to many types of questions. He even describes his compensation as captured on a 990 in a very specific way. BTW, a 990 for one organization won't have information about other sources of income that would be found on his filed taxes.
So, let's check those 990s, shall we?
"I've had the same salary for 4+ years and will never increase at TPUSA. It's all public, on 990s."
Per the 990 filed by Turning Point USA in the years 2018-2022 (the most recent filing available to view) this is a false statement. Bowyer's compensation as described on the filing is broken out this way, per year:
2022 $255,619
2021 $260,863
2020 $128,499
2019 $98,126
2018 $0.00
I'm not sure why someone isn't aware his income from the last four years was, in fact, very different over those years from a source that must publicly report those details. Weird. It's like he doesn't care. It could also be he got confused. Maybe Tyler Bowyer has other sources of income besides those in the 990s he wants us to see while claiming others should show us their 1040s and more to not be thought of as a crook.
Bowyer also states "TPAction and TPUSA spend 90% plus direct to programming," in his false tweet about his compensation. Let's look at that.
Turning Point USA is a tax-exempt, non-profit 501(c)3. They describe their mission as "To identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government."
I am relying on a breakdown of the 2022 990 by this website, a source that performs similar work for other non-profits. Based on that analysis, there is no way 90% of revenue goes to direct programming.
None.
Tyler Bowyer, in his role in the fake elector scheme in Arizona, knowingly signed falsified documents written to defraud voters. Bowyer glibly makes demonstrably false statements about his income and the accomplishments of the organization he serves as Chief Operating Officer.
We will stay on this.