As students streamed into a Virginia Tech auditorium, moving through metal detectors and police officers, they passed by a replica of the tent that conservative activist Charlie Kirk sat under at Utah Valley University two weeks ago when he was shot and killed. Several attendees posed for photos beneath the canopy emblazoned with Mr. Kirk’s tagline “PROVE ME WRONG,” next to a photograph of him.
The empty tent and the police dogs were immediate reminders of how different this Turning Point USA event would be compared to so many of the previous college debates that Mr. Kirk held during his life – and the challenges that lie ahead as the GOP tries to build on his success with young voters.
“The question that has been asked over and over again is ‘Who will be the next Charlie?’” said Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, as he paced the stage in khaki pants and a blazer. “You will be the next Charlie,” he told the audience, which nearly filled the 3,000-seat auditorium.
Why We Wrote This
Supporters of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk vow to expand his conservative youth movement. As the Turning Point USA campus tour resumes, students at Virginia Tech share their vision for the cause he built.
Since Mr. Kirk’s death, Turning Point says it has received more than 120,000 requests for new chapters at college and high school campuses, and a rotating list of conservative influencers and politicians – such as Gov. Youngkin and podcaster Megyn Kelly here at Virginia Tech – have signed up to guest host the nine remaining tour stops over the next two months.
“There’s a huge ecosystem of people who are similar to Kirk and can pick up where he left off,” says a GOP operative, who requested anonymity to speak freely. “There will be a whole range of people who enter the field over the next few months who could have just as much influence.”
Story Hinckley/The Christian Science Monitor
But when Ms. Kelly opened up the room for questions, it became clear that Mr. Kirk’s college tours – or at least this one – wouldn’t exist in the way they had before.
All but two of the 25 questions were asked by fellow conservatives or, at the very least, fans of Ms. Kelly’s. There wasn’t the kind of “proving wrong” that Mr. Kirk made go viral in his social media clips. Neither were there the kind of back-and-forth conversations between two sides that Mr. Kirk praised. Maybe this was due to the change of location. The dark, hot auditorium with layers of security wasn’t as accessible as Mr. Kirk’s previous events, when he sat on campus lawns as students walked by. Perhaps it was due to the headliner. Left-leaning students may not feel the same draw to debating Ms. Kelly as they did Mr. Kirk.
Or perhaps it was due to this political moment, when bitter partisanship and accusations have sharpened after Mr. Kirk’s death, raising questions about whether there’s an appetite for the same kind of robust debates that he championed.
Instead of provocative moments, the audience offered largely conservative-friendly questions like: How much influence does Israel have on our politics? What is your Starbucks order? How can I coexist with liberals as a conservative Christian?
A version of this last question was asked several times.
“I don’t think you should talk about politics,” said Ms. Kelly, telling the audience a story about how she takes an annual trip with two girlfriends, one liberal and one independent. The trip works for them because they don’t talk politics. “Unless you really, really love each other and feel like it’s safe to try… But there’s no reason to start debating, I think, people with whom you have diametrically opposed views.”
But to Mr. Kirk, that was precisely the point, as highlighted by several clips stitched together for a memorial video played at the start of the event.
“The courage and inspiration we’ve gotten from this moment, it’s going to inspire a lot of other future Charlie Kirks,” says Ariel Schlosser, a senior at Virginia Tech. “Maybe it will be enough if we all do our part to keep the movement going.”
More than a dozen students interviewed by the Monitor before the event shared similar sentiments: No one person could or should replace Mr. Kirk. But maybe remembering him would be enough.
“I want to carry on his legacy,” said Chase Wampler, who started a Turning Point chapter at his high school in southwest Virginia three days after Mr. Kirk was killed. “I think he’s going to be replaced by a movement and not a singular person.”
But if there is a singular successor to Mr. Kirk at this moment it is likely his wife, Erika, who was recently appointed CEO and board chair of Turning Point USA. Her message of forgiveness at the memorial service for her husband over the weekend drew bipartisan praise.
On a recent episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, Mr. Kirk’s Chief of Staff, Mikey McCoy, said he spoke with Ms. Kirk recently about how they could “continue Charlie’s legacy” and “really 10x this organization,” and he got emotional because it felt like he was talking to Mr. Kirk himself.
“She knew everything,” said Mr. McCoy. “From the way she texts to the way she talks, I can confidently say that I feel like it’s Charlie still leading this organization.”
