Charlie Kirk Built A Conservative Institution. Can It Survive Him?
Authored by Brigham Tomco via Deseret News,
Just inside the Turning Point USA Freedom Center in Phoenix, Arizona, there is a gold-framed painting, about three feet tall, glowing in a warm spotlight mounted on the wall.
Captured mid-throw is Charlie Kirk, lobbing red and white MAGA caps into a mass of ecstatic students, cheering against the brilliant-blue backdrop of a September afternoon.
His outstretched arm pulls taut the word "FREEDOM" across his white T-shirt. Rendered in commemorative brushstrokes: the moment Kirk's "American Comeback Tour" arrived in Orem, Utah.
The same wall previously featured the faces of 36 Turning Point USA staffers who had showcased Kirk's signature "grassroots humility," "warrior spirit" and "persistent innovation."
Four of them were in attendance at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025, when their role model was ripped away in one of the most public acts of political violence in U.S. history.
Kirk's shocking absence continues to fill all six buildings at Turning Point headquarters.
His leather seat on the set of "The Charlie Kirk Show" sits permanently empty. On the glass table by his microphone rests a plush hand puppet and plastic moose positioned there by Kirk less than a month before he died so his two toddler-aged children would know he was thinking of them as they watched with their mother, Erika.
Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA founder and president, answers interview questions on the set of The Charlie Kirk Show at Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Most days, the children still come by to play. Team members help with childcare while Erika works from the office her husband once used; his chair, again, intentionally left vacant.
For a while, Kirk's kids, now ages 4 and 2, got a new toy during every visit, chosen from a collection of gifts sent by well-wishers, affectionately called "daddy's friends," that took up entire rooms.
When I returned to Turning Point's campus in August the makeshift tribute had been moved for remodeling. A new eight-foot fence circled the perimeter of the nonprofit company's campus.
It was a year to the day since my first visit to Turning Point. In some ways it felt like entering a place frozen in amber. Enshrined memories converted every shelf into a time capsule.
As I came around a corner, I saw where Kirk stood a year ago after our interview beside a pair of front-page newspaper stories announcing the failed assassination attempt against President Donald Trump.
Now each department displays news clippings of Trump delivering Kirk's eulogy.
A museum-like reverence hung in the air. But around Kirk's empty chairs, team members pulsed with a restless determination to do everything they could to keep their founder's vision alive.
Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point Action chief operating officer, answers interview questions in his office at Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
"You've got to prove that you can actually make an impact, that you can do things that we were working towards prior to his assassination," Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer told me.
At Erika's insistence, Kirk's producers Andrew Kolvet and Blake Neff emerged from behind the scenes to take over his daily program, doing their best to opine on the issues as Kirk would if he were here.
Meanwhile, the political infrastructure Kirk told me was Turning Point's "lifeblood" has expanded at a pace Bowyer and Turning Point USA COO Justin Streiff are struggling to match amid maximum turnout at chapter leadership summits, record-breaking renewals for school chapters and a landslide GOP primary win in Arizona's gubernatorial election.
While Turning Point's activist machine remains a vehicle for the conservative empire Kirk built, it also finds itself at the nexus of forces tearing the American right apart in the wake of his death.
Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA founder and president, talks with employees at Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
In interviews with the Deseret News, the leaders at Turning Point recognized Kirk as irreplaceable. His influence was unique, they said, because it ran so much deeper than the political fights that made him famous. They hope his legacy will be quieter; a movement of strong marriages, big families and full churches; something akin to a revival.
It is not lost on them that this effect might be impossible to replicate. The void Kirk left can only be filled one way, they agreed: young people putting down their phones, and picking up the mic.
The Day Everything Changed
Charlie Kirk speaks before he was shot during Turning Point USA’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News
It was an unusually warm 90 degrees in Orem as Kirk sat down beneath his trademark "prove me wrong" tent at the bottom of an outdoor amphitheater overflowing with around 3,000 fans and curious onlookers.
Back in 2018, when Kirk first decided that college debates would form the core of his youth outreach, he could barely turn out 300 students. By 2025, scenes of Kirk scoring viral clips on the quad were ubiquitous.
Kirk had just finished lowering his mic after clarifying a question from his interlocutor about gun violence when a "pop" rang out. The blood, and the chaos that followed, were immediately uploaded across the internet.
Read the rest from Deseret here... Meanwhile, as the Epoch Times notes further...
Impact Reverberates
For many, Kirk’s death became the modern-day equivalent of the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy - an unforgettable moment of intense personal and national significance.
“It was traumatic, I think, for the entire country - of all ages, but really for Gen Z and millennials,” Kolvet said. Those groups born after 1981 grew up watching Kirk’s videos on the internet, logging billions of views.
“After his death, it was almost like round two,” Kolvet said. “Everybody rediscovered all the videos again - and a wider audience did.”
Through debates and public speeches since early adulthood, Kirk became a driving force in U.S. politics. He was credited with lassoing young voters for Trump’s election wins in 2016 and 2024. He also had contact with foreign leaders, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
His regular themes were faith in Jesus Christ, advocacy for traditional marriages and parenthood, and his belief that America is the greatest nation to ever exist.
The crowd reacts after Charlie Kirk was shot during Turning Point’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News
But Kirk’s blunt declarations about race, gender, and politics also stoked controversy. Defenders say Kirk debated passionately but civilly, and they alleged that some critics misconstrued his remarks.
Challenges loom for those continuing Kirk’s crusade. High on their list is building TPUSA further and educating younger voters about the dangers of socialism.
At the same time, pursuing justice and the truth about Kirk’s assassination have become part of the organization’s mission, too, Kolvet said.
TPUSA tries to ignore the conspiracy theories that still swirl, he said, dismissing those as “distractions.” But questions, as well as wild speculation, continue to be raised with each stage of the criminal case against alleged gunman Tyler Robinson.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, a friend of Kirk, said during an Aug. 20 podcast that it “enrages” him when people make accusations implicating people close to Kirk such as his widow, who now heads TPUSA.
Prosecutors allege that Robinson, 23, assassinated Kirk over political differences. Yet Kirk had once stated: “We heal our divides by talking to people we disagree with. ... You heal the country when you allow disagreement.”
Turning Point Surges
Within weeks of Kirk’s slaying, 120,000 students inquired about starting a new Turning Point chapter, according to TPUSA.
Following that initial surge, growth has continued at a more manageable rate, Kolvet said, while still tallying large increases.
TPUSA reported a 300 percent jump in church partnerships, a 200 percent increase in Club America groups at high schools, and 64 percent more college chapters, he said.
More than 3,500 schools are represented, according to the group’s website.
A TPUSA women’s gathering drew 3,000 attendees to San Antonio in June.
The next month, a chapter leadership gathering in Washington attracted 2,500 young people. That was double the previous year’s total, Kolvet said, noting that two-thirds of those participants became involved with TPUSA after Kirk’s death.
More than 1,200 employees and 1 million donors - 95 percent of whom gave $1,000 or less - support the group’s activities, he said.
Kolvet cited other indirect trends that could reflect Kirk’s influence: surges in church attendance, baptisms, and Bible sales.
And across the nation, young people emulating Kirk’s “happy warrior” style sometimes make headlines. In Indiana, an angry woman confronted a 17-year-old girl who was sitting at a TPUSA table and handing out plain red, white, and blue bracelets.
Despite the woman hurling profanity and insults, the teen didn’t back down.
“There’s story after story like that,” Kolvet said. “It’s really inspiring. ... That’s an amazing legacy that just continues rolling on.”
Concerns as Midterms Approach
Longtime Florida political analyst Susan MacManus, a retired professor, said the aftermath of Kirk’s death did seem to “turn down the temperature” in politics—at first.
However, the atmosphere seems to be getting uglier again, she said, as the crucial Nov. 3 midterm elections approach.
All 435 U.S. House districts and 33 of the 50 Senate seats are up for grabs. Republicans now hold a slim majority in both chambers. If they lose too many races to Democrats in November, Trump’s second-term agenda could be greatly hampered.
“I’m fearful that we’re moving away from people trying to get along - and back toward the nastiness,” she said.
On one side, MacManus said, she sees people who “glorify” political violence or vitriol; on the other, people in “Kirk mode” are calling for “a more peaceful environment and dialog.”
She senses a strong commitment in the people who want to follow Kirk’s example and his “life model,” as well as his views on what constitutes good governance.
Many fans of Kirk adopted the slogan “I am Charlie,” showing that they were stepping up to fill the void left by his death.
“[They seem dedicated to] making sure that our voice is heard and that our way of doing politics is heard,” MacManus said. “And we won’t back down.”
Opposition Still Obvious
Try as they might, people who try to spread positive messaging have their work cut out for them in an election year, when inflammatory language seems to be on the rise, she said.
And TPUSA still sometimes encounters violent or disruptive opposition at its events.
At the June women’s summit in San Antonio, TPUSA’s video journalists documented police clashing with protesters outside the venue. They also reported that one person dressed like Kirk was mimicking his assassination.
Meanwhile, legislative attempts to honor Kirk have at times become political hot potatoes.
Although lawmakers in 20 states - chiefly Republicans - proposed Kirk-inspired laws, a designated “Charlie Kirk Day,” or physical memorials, many of the measures hit snags. While Democrats often joined Republicans in condemning Kirk’s assassination, they typically opposed honoring him.
Some of the proposals did succeed, such as a Kansas law allowing students to sue schools over interfering with free speech and a Tennessee law urging “the positive impacts of religion” to be taught in American history courses.
Carolina Estevez, a New Jersey psychologist, explained why pro- and anti-Kirk factions could both become more entrenched in their views.
“His death changed him from a political communicator to a political symbol, and symbols frequently last longer than arguments,” she said.
A political assassination such as Kirk’s “may increase in-group solidarity,” she said, noting that the victim may be seen as a symbol of “perceived threats” to the whole group.
Wildaliz Caro, a licensed clinical psychologist in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, said, “The continued influence of Charlie Kirk may well rely on collective memory.”
“After a leader dies, movements tend to simplify their image,” she said. “Complex individuals are now simply symbols of something much bigger: grievance, identity, or cause ... supporters respond not just to what he said, but to what he has come to mean.”
As a result, the opposing factions may have an even harder time relating to each other, Caro said.
Socratic Method
However, Kirk knew how to connect with different types of people.
“Charlie was a bridge-builder with the generations,” Kolvet said. “He could speak ‘Boomer,’ but he could speak Gen Z. ... He understood how to speak to donors and to the political class, but he understood how to speak to kids, too.”
Kirk decided against going to college. Instead, he schooled himself in religion, history, politics, and philosophy—forming the foundation for the way he lived and the way he approached debates.
“He created a model, a way to think about things, the way to argue through things, a way to defend our values in America, unapologetically, courageously, full-throated,” Kolvet said.
Kirk explained his methods in podcasts, including during an episode of The Charlie Kirk Show on Aug. 18, 2025—less than a month before he was killed.
A listener wanted to know how conservatives can talk to liberals without devolving into name-calling.
Kirk advised: “Always make sure they’re the ones freaking out ... and use the Socratic method.”
The method is named after the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. After a person made an assertion, he would ask questions that eventually could reveal contradictions in the responder’s own logic.
Some people will refuse to change their minds no matter what. But others who seem to be staunch can be persuaded by using the Socratic method persistently “to get toward some approximation of truth,” Kirk said.
And, Kirk said, debaters ought to remember: “You’re not just debating a person. You’re performing for the audience of everyone else. And I try to do that at our prove-me-wrong events.”
Kirk seemed to have a special ability to inspire people who were open-minded and free thinkers, Kolvet said. Those people would walk away with “a fire in [their] belly that was just so contagious.”
Opposing Spread of Socialism
Through its Pick Up the Mic initiative, TPUSA is moving its founder’s legacy forward.
“Charlie Kirk built a movement from under a tent with one table, one mic, and a line of students stepping forward to debate. Now the tent is back, and a new generation of TPUSA chapters is bringing that presence to the center of campus,” the group’s website says, calling this “free speech in action.”
Kolvet predicted that 40 years from now, the “crop of young leaders that he inspired are going to go on and do great things, and they will be the firewall for freedom that this country needs.”
Before he died, Kirk made it clear to those leaders-in-training that they must stand firm against the spread of socialism.
“We’re doing our part to tell young people that free market capitalism is the most moral, proven, and effective system,” Kolvet said. “It’s lifted more people out of poverty across the world than any other economic system has.”
In contrast, socialism leads to stagnation, despair, and seizure of private property under communist rule—the antithesis of the American bedrock of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“It’s tempting to go down this other path, but it doesn’t work, and that’s the problem,” Kolvet said. “And so, we are winning that debate with our people, but there’s a lot of people that still need to be reached and still need to hear that message.”
Justice for Kirk
Another important objective for TPUSA is fighting against “Charlie Kirk trutherism” - the rejection of officials’ accounts about what happened the day he was killed.
A “cottage industry” has sprung up around that skepticism, Kolvet said.
The antidote is for the justice system to handle the alleged gunman’s case properly and in the open, he said, noting, “Getting justice for Charlie is actually really, really important for the country.”
While it’s healthy to question government, “there has to be a foundation of rule of law, of justice, of facts, evidence, logic that undergirds all of our institutions,” he said.
Pursuing justice for Kirk “feels like a battle for truth itself,” Kolvet said.
“It’s part of a larger mission of fighting for the country. ... We want to make sure that we don’t lose all faith in our institutions, right?” he said.
Balancing all those considerations is challenging, but Kolvet said he believes that “God is doing a work through Charlie’s life.”
“Charlie’s life will continue to be one of the most important and pivotal expressions of God’s providential hand on this country for years to come,” he said.
“And I believe, on some level, I’m comforted by the fact that, yes, we can choose to be a part of that.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/10/2026 - 15:20
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum testifies on Capitol Hill on April 29, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times
via AFP
In this photo taken with a smartphone, people opposed to a congressional redistricting plan rally outside the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb)
Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA founder and president, answers interview questions on the set of The Charlie Kirk Show at Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News 
Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point Action chief operating officer, answers interview questions in his office at Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News 
Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA founder and president, talks with employees at Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Charlie Kirk speaks before he was shot during Turning Point USA’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News 
The crowd reacts after Charlie Kirk was shot during Turning Point’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News
Evan Vucci/Reuters/Aaron Schwarz/Getty Images 
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images 
Vantor/Reuters
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