Only weeks after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a university campus in Utah, the organization he co-founded continued his planned “American Comeback Tour” two hours north at Utah State University.
In place of Kirk, Turning Point USA booked a panel of Republican, Latter-day Saint politicians to take the stage at the Logan campus Tuesday night.
They include Utah’s Gov. Spencer Cox, Arizona U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, Utah’s former Rep. Jason Chaffetz — now a commentator on Fox News — and Sen. Mike Lee, a close ally of Kirk’s.
The Utah senator appeared on Kirk’s podcast one week before his slaying just miles from Lee’s home.
“I want to thank you for the work that you’re doing on campuses across the country,” Lee told Kirk, “and for your interest in visiting Utah next week. You’re giving students everywhere the chance to hear perspectives that they often wouldn’t otherwise get.”
Doors opened Tuesday night only hours after the university evacuated the Old Main administrative building across campus because of a suspicion package. A small explosion was heard on campus and police later said they destroyed the package, which they said was not a bomb.
An hour ahead of the Republican politicians taking the stage, thousands of students and supporters filtered into the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum arena at Utah State University.
A line of hundreds of attendees had earlier in the afternoon curled around the sidewalks outside the basketball arena. Although the building has a capacity of just over 10,000, Turning Point USA capped the event’s attendance at 5,500 people.
Among the Make America Great Again apparel seen being worn by attendees, others wore white T-shirts with the word “FREEDOM” — identical to the one Kirk was wearing at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
Often perceived as more moderate than many figures in his party, Cox had previously been criticized by Kirk.
In 2022, after Cox vetoed a ban on transgender girls from school sports, Kirk posted, “Utah Governor Spencer Cox should be expelled from the Republican party.”
Cox has since signed and supported multiple laws imposing restrictions on the state’s transgender community.
Cheers erupted in the line outside the USU arena when a man strode by carrying Utah’s historical state flag — a blue banner embellished with the state seal. Since Utah’s flag was replaced in 2023, the historical one has become a pennant for Utahns who fall to the right of many of the state’s elected GOP officials.
