Kirk rose to prominence as a conservative teenage activist stirring up political debate on college campuses with right-wing talking points on gun rights, abortion, immigration and religion.
Kirk’s conservative youth organization Turning Point USA became a force in grassroots politics. It turned into the largest conservative youth organization in the United States.
Kirk had 5.3 million followers on his X account and over 500,000 monthly listeners to podcasts of his radio program, “The Charlie Kirk Show.” He also wrote or contributed to several books, including “Time for a Turning Point” and “The College Scam.”
Turning Point USA played a role in helping galvanize voters in his home state of Arizona during Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Kirk also appeared at Trump’s inauguration.
“No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me,” Trump posted shortly after Kirk’s death.
During an appearance with Trump last year in Georgia, Kirk said Democrats “stand for everything God hates.” He called choosing between Trump and Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election “a spiritual battle.”
“This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way,” Kirk said.
Kirk was a long-time supporter of gun rights guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution.
“I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” Kirk said during a Turning Point event in Salt Lake City in 2023, adding that gun deaths could be reduced but will never go away.
His event on Wednesday at Utah Valley University was the first stop on what was dubbed the “American Comeback Tour,” during which he was fielding questions from the audience sitting at a table adorned with Trump campaign hats, under a banner reading “Prove Me Wrong.”
The moment before Kirk was fatally wounded, he had been responding to a question about gun violence in the US.
Kirk was married to podcaster Erika Frantzve and had two young children.
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