Charlie Kirk called a 'generational hero' among young conservatives, leaves behind strong legacy

Conservative youth leader and Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk leaves behind a legacy of inspiring young conservatives to be involved in the culture war and leading the youth vote for President Donald Trump.

Kirk was fatally shot Wednesday at an event at the Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, and has been confirmed dead at the age of 31. Video footage showed Kirk speaking under a tent to a large crowd outdoors before being blown out of his stool.

Kirk has been one of the most influential voices on the right in recent years, notably founding Turning Point USA chapters at universities across the country and hosting speakers' summits for young conservatives.

Kirk was the personification of populist conservatism, which took over the GOP after Trump's first presidential win in 2016. Turning Point USA's political wing ran a get-out-the-vote operation for Trump's 2024 campaign in which it reached out to conservative voters who didn't vote.

"Charlie Kirk was a generational hero for the conservative movement," former Liberty University College Republicans President Jesse Hughes said in a statement to Just the News. "His platform and influence inspired not only myself, but a whole generation of young conservatives to get involved for the values they believed in."

He said that Kirk was a good man of faith. 

"It’s heartbreaking to see we have lost him, but comforting to know he is in the presence of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ," Hughes said. "May God bless, protect, and bring peace to his family."

Gary Rabine, a Kirk adviser, praised him as a dreamer who loved everybody. 

"He changed more minds from left to center to right than anybody ever has in this country," Rabine said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show on Wednesday. 

During Trump's 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns, Kirk campaigned for Trump and held multiple events at which he would debate with leftist students on college campuses on a wide range of issues. 

"He was always about the debate," Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters on Capitol Hill.

In 2019, Trump praised Kirk in Arizona at a Turning Point event for helping him on the campaign trail and mobilizing the vote. 

"I want to express my tremendous gratitude to Charlie Kirk," he said, according to ABC News. "He's really an amazing guy, amazing guy and his whole staff for their relentless efforts to achieve this very historic victory … It's not my victory, it's your victory. It's a great honor."

Kirk was considered an extended member of the Trump family, according to the news outlet. 

Trump ordered flags nationwide to be flown at half staff until Sunday evening in honor of Kirk.

"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead," Trump wrote on TRUTH Social. "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, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!"

Former Turning Point USA ambassador Justine Murray described Kirk as one of the most influential voices of Generation Z. 

“Charlie Kirk made it bearable to be a lone conservative college student in a cesspool of Marxist orthodoxy," Murray said in a statement to Just the News. "He gave me and so many other young Turning Point USA ambassadors a platform to learn and express our beliefs freely, when we were shouted at and shut down by every institution. He was one of the most influential Gen Z voices of our time."

Kirk was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. He briefly attended Harper College before dropping out to pursue a career in political activism. He leaves behind a wife and two children.