TPUSA, National Constitution Bee Announce New Partnership in Tennessee High Schools

by | Jan 16, 2026

A new partnership between Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and the National Constitution Bee to connect TPUSA’s high school Club America chapters with the National Constitution Bee’s Constitution-focused scholarship competition in Tennessee was announced during Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

The collaboration will connect TPUSA’s Club America high school chapters with the National Constitution Bee, a scholarship competition centered on the U.S. Constitution founded by Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star.

Under the partnership, the National Constitution Bee will work initially with 10 Club America high school chapters in Tennessee, providing students with copies of The Guide to the Constitution and Bill of Rights for Secondary School Students, a book co-authored by Leahy and Claudia Henneberry.

Students will also receive copies of the Tennessee State Constitution and opportunities to participate in Constitution Bee preparation sessions through their school clubs.

The partnership was announced during an on-air conversation between Leahy and Josh Thifault, a longtime TPUSA leader who has worked with the organization since 2015.

The National Constitution Bee, first launched in 2017 and recently relaunched, is open to students in grades 8 through 12. The one-day competition features three rounds: a creative Preamble Round, a quiz-style Elimination Round, and a Championship Round that combines oral essay responses with advanced fact-based questions.

The winner receives a $10,000 college scholarship, with $5,000 and $2,500 awarded to second- and third-place finishers, respectively. All participants receive certificates, while top finalists earn trophies and letters of recommendation.

The guidebook used in the competition presents the Constitution and the Bill of Rights from an originalist perspective, including historical context, discussion prompts, and the full text of all 27 amendments.

Leahy said every student who participates in the Constitution Bee “is a winner” in the sense that they “learn about the Constitution and the founding of our country in ways that they don’t get in public schools these days.”

Thifault praised the Constitution Bee partnership as a natural fit for TPUSA’s mission.

“If every young American had some basic understanding of the Bible and some basic understanding of the United States Constitution, everything would change. It would be very tough for the left to corrupt anyone who has a basic understanding of those two documents,” Thifault said.

The National Constitution Bee competition is scheduled to take place in October in Brentwood.

The partnership between TPUSA and the Constitution Bee comes amid TPUSA’s broader push to establish Club America chapters in every public high school, college, and university in Tennessee. That initiative was announced last month at a press conference at the Tennessee State Capitol.

According to Thifault, Tennessee currently has close to 100 Club America high school chapters, a number he says is growing rapidly.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.

 

 

 

 

   
This article may be republished only in its entirety and only with proper attribution to State News Foundation.

Written By Kaitlin Housler

Journalist

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