Conservative student group that hosted AG Jeff Sessions, chanting ‘Lock her up,’ has 23 Florida chapters

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions addressed a crowd at a high school leadership summit Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C., when the audience began chanting the phrase “lock her up.” Sessions laughed and joined in once.

He was there to speak to Turning Point USA, a national student-centric conservative group that’s growing in Florida. The group has chapters in 47 states – Florida has 23 chapters on college campuses statewide, including at Florida State University, the University of Florida, and the University of Central Florida.

The group says its mission is to educate students about fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government through “non-partisan debate, dialogue, and discussion.”

But it looked pretty partisan at the gathering Sessions attended. The chant – which was popular among conservatives in the Trump-Hillary Clinton presidential election – began after Sessions went off-script to congratulate the crowd. He said schools are “coddling young people” with “Play-dough and coloring books” and cited a “cry-in” at Cornell University in response to the 2016 election results. His remarks were met with applause and whooping.

“You’re not going to be backing down (from a debate),” Sessions had said. “Go get them, go get them.”

Turning Point USA also works is to register students to vote. A recent study reported a significant increase in the number of people under age 29 who are registering to vote in “key battleground states” – including Florida – in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland.