Turning Point USA has a problem with Erika Kirk

A week after Charlie Kirk’s murder, Turning Point USA’s director of operations made a prediction.

“Charlie Kirk came and converted young people. Erika Kirk comes to convert young women,” Tyler Bowyer wrote on

That forecast accompanied the news that Erika Kirk would assume her late husband’s role as CEO and president of his conservative nonprofit, a force on college campuses credited with drawing so many Gen Z men into far-right politics in an election that sent President Donald Trump back to the White House.

Headlines reflecting on the possibility followed. “In Erika Kirk, conservative women see the future,” CNN wrote the next day. “Republicans hope Erika Kirk can attract more young women to the party,” NBC News published weeks later. They featured interviews with young conservatives and Republican strategists, many of whom suggested that Turning Point could use Erika Kirk as a conduit to reach Gen Z women.

Turning Point USA did not respond when asked if it had seen more interest from young women since Erika Kirk took over. She also did not respond to requests for an interview with her.

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The reality, say experts in the young voting bloc, is that young women don’t really buy the narrative that Erika Kirk has been selling: that they would be happier leaving their careers behind, marrying young, having children and “submitting” to their husbands.

“I certainly think Erica Kirk could be a strong leader, attracting more young women than, perhaps, have been part of the Turning Point movement to date, but I don’t suspect we’re going to see a massive shift among young women anytime soon,” said Rachel Janfaza, founder of Gen Z research and strategy firm The Up and Up.

Dr. Corey Seemiller, a generational expert who has written six books about Generation Z, agreed, saying she doesn’t expect Erika Kirk to be some kind of “mass draw” for young women, especially “if she continues to deliver the same message as Charlie Kirk.”

“The message that resonates with Gen Z women is really different than the message that resonates with Gen Z men,” she noted, saying the demographic is shaping up to be one of the biggest political gender divides in generations.

“Can Erica Kirk be the same? I don’t think women look for that.”

– Corey Seemiller, generational expert

That is evident in the recent elections. In 2024, young women ages 18 to 29 chose then-Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump by an 18-point margin. Men in that age group leaned significantly the other way, choosing Trump over Harris by a 14-point margin.

The key to Charlie Kirk’s success in attracting young men to MAGA was his “attractive impact,” Seemiller said. “Charlie Kirk didn’t hold back and the kids were like, ‘Yeah, finally someone is saying something for me. He’s speaking my language.'”

“Can Erica Kirk be the same?” she asked. “I don’t think women look for that.”

What Gen Z women really care about

Across the political spectrum, Gen Z women have very different feelings about marriage, children, and metrics of success than Erika Kirk and her male counterparts.

“This idea of ​​finding that partner because you don’t want to spend your life alone is definitely not something that women are embracing en masse, by any means,” Seemiller said of Gen Z women.

Recent data it has collected shows that while 23% of Gen Z men said they wanted to get married to avoid being alone, only 13% of women in that age group said the same.

And among members of Generation Z who said that No want to get married, 56% of women cited a desire to be independent, compared to just 41% of men, their data showed. Among that group, 24% of women cited opposition to combining finances, while only 17% of men said the same.

“We don’t see any indication that these women are dependent on these male ‘heads of the family’ who would take care of them financially,” Seemiller observed.

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Even within Turning Point’s target demographic, young, right-wing voters, the differences in men’s and women’s priorities are striking, especially when it comes to one of the Kirks’ most important mandates: having children.

In September, an NBC News poll that broke down Gen Z priorities by gender and by Trump versus Harris voters found that while Gen Z men who voted for Trump ranked having children as their No. 1 marker of success, their female counterparts ranked him sixth among their 13 choices. And while those men ranked being married fourth, female Trump voters ranked it ninth.

In another twist, Gen Z women who voted for Trump ranked achieving financial independence higher than both groups of men. and Harris female voters, ranking her No. 1.

The findings match what Janfaza hears in meetings he holds with young voters.

“In my listening sessions with Gen Z women I hear a strong focus on financial stability and financial freedom as the top thing they prioritize when thinking about metrics for success in their future,” she said.

It doesn’t seem like Erika Kirk understands any of that. In a recent interview, she seemed completely perplexed by the fact that so many young women voted for New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a candidate who ran on the basis of affordability and America’s cost-of-living crisis. In comments that were widely criticized on social media, she called the Democrat’s victory “so ironic and so interesting” and reflected that young women were asking their government things they should look for in a marriage.

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“What I don’t want to happen is for women, young people in the city, to look to the government for a solution,” she said. “Stop having a family or a marriage, because you depend on the government to support you, instead of being attached to a husband, where you can support yourself and your husband can support you. [you]and you can all combine together.”

Authenticity is important for young people, and a lot

There is an elephant in the room working against Erika Kirk.

“Your husband has to be the one who goes out into the world, builds, fights and comes home. Conquers,” she said on an April 2025 episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show” while sitting next to her husband. “[He] He comes home and says, ‘This is my savings, this is what I worked so hard for,’ and the wife says, ‘Welcome home, honey, whatever you need, we’re here.'”

Even before becoming CEO, she was a businesswoman with a podcast, a clothing line, and multiple titles.

During an onstage appearance at a Turning Point USA event over the summer, he warned that it was not “ideal” to get married after 30 and that it is “probably not the best statistically odd position.”

“Anyone who wants to connect with Generation Z needs to be real and clear about their daily lives, how they spend their time and their own priorities.”

– Rachel Janfaza, Generation Z Strategist

Erika Kirk was 32 years old when she married Charlie Kirk, five years her junior.

That’s a hypocrisy that may not resonate with young women. either men.

“Young people in general, especially Generation Z, are looking for authenticity,” Leela Strong, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts, a research organization focused on youth civic engagement, told News themezone.

“They want candidates and prominent figures who can talk about substantive issues,” who understand “those issues that they have personally experienced,” he said.

Seemiller agreed, saying the weight Gen Z places on the authenticity of leaders is one of the “biggest findings” about this age group.

Janfaza emphasized the same: “Anyone who wants to connect with Generation Z needs to be real and clear about their daily lives, how they spend their time and their own priorities.”

Young women are also experiencing “tradwife” content creep on social media from creators who “make millions of dollars encouraging people not to make money,” Seemiller noted, and it’s not actually reaching them.

“Gen Z women are realizing that,” she said.

She hopes Turning Point USA will eventually try to package up the inconsistency.

“It will be implied that she believes in this so much that she has to get other people to do it,” Seemiller said. Or, she predicted, they will emphasize her husband’s death, pushing a narrative that “she wouldn’t have stepped forward, but because her husband died, she feels the calling to continue the mission.”

Erika Kirk has not addressed criticisms of hypocrisy. But in a recent News town hall appearance, he affirmed his authenticity.

“We are totally transparent,” he said when discussing his decision to give a live statement following the shooting of Charlie Kirk.

“What you see,” he promised, “is what you get.”