Charlie Kirk loved to argue with liberals. That was apparent to all as he sought them out in national college tours. And if you attended any of his events or followed his viral social media posts, many liberals loved arguing with Kirk.
College students, in particular, would line up to challenge Kirk’s views. He often asked them probing questions in return: Why did they think President Donald Trump was a racist? When does life begin? What is a woman? While there is a tradition of that on the Right from Bill Buckley to Ben Shapiro, Kirk took it to another level for the internet age.
Kirk had an even greater appeal to conservatives on college campuses. With the exception of a select few Christian or overtly conservative schools in the country, academia is a lonely place for anyone a millimeter to the right of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). Conservative students can feel equally, if more temporarily, beleaguered and often compelled to say things they don’t believe to receive passing grades from their professors or social acceptance from their peers.
As the founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, Kirk helped build a network to connect these students and make them feel less alone. A college campus is also where Kirk was murdered, while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University as part of his American Comeback Tour. He was shot in the neck as he was speaking and slumped over in his seat. Leaving behind his wife, Erika, and two young children, Kirk was just 31 years old.
“I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination,” Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) told reporters at a press conference afterward. “When someone takes the life of someone because of their ideas or their ideals, then our constitutional foundation is threatened.”
Tragically, we live in an upside-down world where some view speech as violence and opinions as “erasure” of those who disagree. In their minds, this justifies violence in the form of a bullet to the carotid artery mid-speech and the literal erasure of a father from his children’s lives.
Kirk’s impact wasn’t limited to campus politics. During the nadir of then-President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, the Democrats had one last hope, which some political operatives thought would be their ace in the hole: an experienced field operation that would get out the vote in the battleground states. Identifying and mobilizing voters is crucial for any campaign in a competitive race. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris inherited Biden’s machine when she replaced him at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Arrayed against this formidable turnout apparatus was the less orthodox Trump mobilization operation spearheaded by Kirk and Elon Musk. Never had they done something like this before, at least not on this scale. Their task was made even more difficult by the fact they were targeting low-propensity voters, younger people with less of a history of showing up at polling places on Election Day.
Musk was a data expert and number cruncher who had built large organizations on the fly. Kirk was a grassroots organizer with an underappreciated cultural pull among young potential voters, especially men. Trump swept all seven battleground states on his way back to the White House.
Kirk was a key organizer for a winning presidential ticket despite having never really been part of a campaign staff before. He became a top Trump confidante despite never having worked for the government before. He put together perhaps the largest collegiate political organization in the country, not directly connected to one of the two major parties, as a college dropout. He was just 18 when he started Turning Point USA.
CHARLIE KIRK DEAD AFTER BEING SHOT AT UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY EVENT
But Kirk wasn’t just in it for the tax cuts or the clicks. “My job every single day is actively trying to stop a revolution,” he told Deseret News earlier this year. “This is where you have to try to point them towards ultimate purposes and towards getting back to the church, getting back to faith, getting married, having children. That is the type of conservatism that I represent, and I’m trying to paint a picture of virtue of lifting people up, not just staying angry.”
Yes, Charlie Kirk loved to debate liberals. It’s the kind of thing that belongs on a tombstone. Sadly, this is one epitaph that had to be written way too soon.
W. James Antle III is executive editor of the Washington Examiner magazine.
