Charlie Kirk’s death is just the beginning
Conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was a teenager when he had an idea for “Start a youth organization to try to save Western civilization.”
Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012 and expanded its presence over the next 13 years, primarily on college campuses and through social media. The organization exploded in popularity alongside Donald Trump’s rise to power: millions of people watched TPUSA-branded debate videos that boasted supposed takedowns of left-wing arguments on topics such as racism, religion and feminism.
So when Kirk was assassinated in front of thousands of people at Utah Valley University on September 10, it was no small loss for the Republican Party. The 31-year-old married father of two put a young, healthy face on an aging Republican Party and introduced the party’s archaic worldview to millions of young people. He and TPUSA were literally the future of conservatism.
But Turning Point’s mission (and that of the Republican Party) did not die with Kirk.
“This is a train that just won’t stop running after Kirk’s death,” says News themezone senior editor Andy Campbell, who also reports on extremism. “In fact, I think it just rolls faster.” (For the full story, watch the video above.)
Turning Point USA has approximately 3,500 high school and college chapters nationwide. The organization promotes conservative values by organizing conferences and religious groups, funding Christian schools, and donating to Republican political candidates through its political action committee (PAC).
The organization reports that it has received more than 120,000 inquiries about new chapters since Kirk’s death in September.
Joe Raedle via Getty Images
Campbell said TPUSA sounds good on paper. “It activates college students,” he said. “It brings them together and helps conservatives get their message into the schools.”
But Turning Point USA is funded by Republican Party special interest groups, and the organization’s coffers are full. TPUSA racked up nearly $400 million in donations between 2012 and 2023, according to tax records compiled by ProPublica.
Campbell said “war money” is funding a widespread plan to eliminate leftist thinking from the American public education system. “[Kirk] used Turning Point USA to push far-right ideology and Christian ideology into schools across the country,” he said.
“One of the reasons we are experiencing a constitutional crisis is that we no longer have a Christian nation, but we have a Christian form of government, and they are incompatible,” Charlie Kirk told the crowd at a Turning Point event in August 2024. “You can’t have freedom if you don’t have a Christian population.”
Turning Point USA is the spearhead of a broader Republican Party plot to disrupt public education in the United States, largely to the benefit of white Christian conservatives. In Republican-led states like Texas and Florida, politicians are waging a fierce war against “woke” thinking. In 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis introduced the Stop WOKE Act, which would not only censure educators on issues like racism and privilege, but would also allow parents to sue school districts that teach critical race theory. A federal judge struck down provisions of the bill the following year, calling it “positively dystopian.”
In Texas, Republican state lawmakers passed a bill requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments. State Rep. Candy Noble (R), the bill’s sponsor, said students should look at the doctrine and remember that “God is watching.”
Old school politics, new generation
Kirk called himself a champion of free speech and once said, “You should be able to say outrageous things.” During his tenure as CEO of Turning Point USA and host of its eponymous podcast, he certainly did.
Kirk openly opposed same-sex marriage and believed that only monogamous, heterosexual spouses should be allowed to adopt children. He denounced the notion of white privilege and denied the existence of systemic racism. He described trans people as a “throbbing middle finger to God.” He called the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 a “big mistake.”
“He put a face to what are really the rantings of a Reagan-era conservative radio host,” Campbell said. “That includes what right-wing movements call ‘venerating the housewife.’”
“Getting married and having children is a values-based decision, and women have to stop thinking about themselves all the time,” Kirk said on the Sept. 8 episode of her show. “Me, me, me.”
Samuel Corum via Getty Images
Along with his wife Erika, Charlie Kirk ordered young women to abandon their career goals and marry, have children, and submit to their husbands. And yet, weeks after his murder, Kirk’s wife became the new CEO and board chair of Turning Point USA.
“Erika Kirk’s arrival really speaks to the hypocrisy of everything she and Charlie Kirk have stood for,” said News themezone senior reporter Lydia O’Connor, who profiled Erika Kirk, 36, in the days after her husband’s murder.
“Throughout her marriage, she’s had a career. She’s had a podcast. She’s had a clothing line. She’s had other businesses,” O’Connor said. “She has several titles and apparently this worked well for them, although, publicly, she has been saying the opposite, saying things like a woman’s main job is to be, quote, ‘helper’ to her husband.”
Passing the torch
Following the death of her husband, Erika Kirk addressed “Charlie Kirk Show” viewers with an emotional promise that Turning Point would continue its mission even without Charlie. “Everyone should know this: If you thought my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea… You have no idea the fire you have lit inside this wife. This widow’s screams will echo around the world like a battle cry,” she said.
A grieving widow is a powerful symbol at the forefront of a movement, and Erika Kirk has proven adept at wielding her influence. At Kirk’s nationally televised memorial service in Glendale, Arizona, Erika Kirk cited Scripture and forgave her husband’s accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. He received raucous applause.
At that same monument, Turning Point USA registered thousands of voters.
“If the murder of Charlie Kirk was intended to thwart his influence, it appears to have had exactly the opposite effect,” Campbell said. “Donald Trump and his administration have turned Charlie Kirk into a martyr.”
Hu Yousong/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images
Campbell believes the Republican Party will use Kirk’s murder as a political tool for years to come, particularly to instill conservative Christian ideology in schools. President Trump has already established a Department of Justice task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias.” On October 14, he posthumously awarded Kirk a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, on what would have been his 32nd birthday.
“This death is being used to further that ideology and crystallize it into something that will endure beyond Kirk and Trump,” Campbell said. “This is a well-funded, well-functioning machine that was here before Charlie Kirk and will continue after.”