In the days since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, discussion of his legacy has often turned to his work galvanizing conservatives on college campuses. But he was also influential among an even younger audience.
Through Turning Point USA, the right-wing political organization he founded in 2012, Mr. Kirk reached many of his followers long before they set foot on a university campus. The group has around 1,200 chapters at high schools — hundreds more than it has at colleges, Andrew Kolvet, a Turning Point spokesman, wrote on X this week.
Mr. Kirk’s teenage fans extend well beyond fledgling conservatives in red states. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, said at a news conference on Tuesday that his 14-year-old son, Hunter, had called him from school the moment he heard that Mr. Kirk had been shot, anxious for news of his condition. He had been an admirer.
Conversations with his son served as “a reminder of how many young people were impacted by this death in a pretty profound way,” Mr. Newsom said.
Mr. Kirk’s killing has reverberated among the high school students who saw him as a model for how to advance conservative viewpoints against the arguments of their more liberal peers, and as a political figure who recognized the organizing might of Republican teenagers.
At an online vigil held Monday night by the High School Republican National Federation and the South Dakota chapter of the High School Democrats of America, speakers read Bible verses and shared a sentiment that Mr. Kirk had taken their age group seriously.
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The post Charlie Kirk’s Influence on His Followers Started Well Before College appeared first on New York Times.
