Before his assassination, Charlie Kirk told Turning Point USA executives that he had a plan for the organization’s future in the event of his death. This week, it was put into action: On Wednesday evening, Erika Kirk was elected the new chief executive and chair of the board of Turning Point USA.
When Mrs. Kirk gave her first public remarks after her husband’s death last week, she pledged that she would be a core part of making the organization’s mission even stronger, telling listeners that the campus tour would go on, that there would be more tours in the years to come and that the radio and podcast shows Mr. Kirk was proud of would go forward.
“I’ll make Turning Point USA the biggest thing that this nation has ever seen,” she said. “I promise.”
For years, at Mr. Kirk’s side, Mrs. Kirk emphasized the importance of prioritizing marriage and motherhood over career. “Boss babe culture,” she said in 2021 at a Turning Point event, “is completely antithetical to the gospel.” In June, headlining a summit on women’s leadership, Mrs. Kirk sat alongside her husband as he told the crowd that every woman should “submit to a godly man.”
She is one of a raft of conservative female leaders right now who are building prominent careers and public-facing lives while emphasizing a particular message: telling young women to focus on getting married and starting a family, rather than having a public-facing life. And it’s a message that is resonating at political gatherings, on partisan podcasts with sprawling audiences and on Instagram accounts with 10 million followers.
To some onlookers, it’s speech almost as optical illusion. First, you see one political message appear, then the light shifts and you see something else entirely.
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The post Erika Kirk Takes a Leadership Role in Turning Point USA appeared first on New York Times.
