Copyright The New York Times
Charlie Kirk’s name seemed to be everywhere last week as his supporters streamed into a park in the suburban city of Mesa, Ariz., to urge voters to recall Julie Spilsbury, a Republican city councilwoman who endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024. Cars had “Justice for Charlie Kirk” scrawled on the windows. Posters were emblazoned with Mr. Kirk’s face. T-shirts declared, “I am Charlie,” or simply said “Freedom” — evoking the white shirt that Mr. Kirk was wearing when he was fatally shot last month at a Utah college. The recall was one of the last campaigns that Mr. Kirk, the founder of Turning Point U.S.A. and its political arm Turning Point Action, had been involved in before his killing, a Turning Point staff member told dozens of people gathered in the park. Now, the race has become a polarizing test of whether Turning Point can exert its right-wing, pro-Trump agenda without Mr. Kirk at the helm. “You guys are the ones doing the tennis shoes-and-clipboard work that Charlie would’ve been out doing with us today,” Brett Galaszewski, a Turning Point organizer, told dozens of Turning Point staff members and volunteers who shared bagels and prayers before heading out to knock on doors. “I hate this,” Ms. Spilsbury, 48, said in an interview. “It’s been beyond painful.” Turning Point staff members have come from as far as Georgia and Wisconsin to turn out votes. The group’s logo is plastered on campaign signs lining the streets. And as Turning Point staff and volunteers encourage voters to oust Ms. Spilsbury, a common refrain is, “For Charlie!” “This is more boots on the ground than the presidential election,” said John Giles, a former mayor of Mesa and a Republican who also endorsed Ms. Harris, and supports Ms. Spilsbury. “Instead of talking about potholes, we’re talking about national issues that aren’t on the agenda.” Ms. Spilsbury grew up in Mesa, a fast-growing city of 520,000 just outside of Phoenix, built atop old citrus orchards. Many voters know her as a mother of six and lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has many members in the area. After years of volunteering with schools and local boards, she was elected to the city’s nonpartisan council in 2020, and won re-election last year by a 30-point margin. She frames the recall as a contest between neighborly kindness and poisonous national politics. “Turning Point has been the sole driving force behind this,” Ms. Spilsbury told a group of supporters one morning before they headed out to distribute leaflets in her favor. “We’ve got to do this differently in our country, and we’ve got to start here,” she said. But some of the church friends and neighbors who once voted for Ms. Spilsbury are now planting yard signs supporting her opponent, Dorean Taylor, a political newcomer and local business owner endorsed by Turning Point. Ms. Taylor declined an interview request, saying that she was focused on “meeting voters, hearing their concerns and learning how I’ll be able to deliver for them in ways that their current councilwoman has not.” Disputes over the recall and Turning Point’s influence have provoked quarrels in neighborhood Facebook groups. Tensions are high in congregations and book clubs. Someone even recently stuck L.G.B.T.Q. flags and Ukraine flags onto some of Ms. Spilsbury’s campaign signs, in what her campaign described as a dirty trick to hurt her standing in her overwhelmingly Republican district. The Ukraine flags are a sign of how the Russian invasion of that country has become part of the political wars in the United States. The rainbow flags were a poke at Ms. Spilsbury’s vote for Mesa’s nondiscrimination ordinance, a 2021 measure that supporters say helped burnish the fast-growing city’s image as a welcoming destination for new residents and technology companies. Now, the ordinance is culture-war ammunition against Ms. Spilsbury. Turning Point-branded campaign signs accuse her of putting “Mesa daughters in danger,” a now-familiar line of attack equating support for transgender rights with allowing men into spaces designated for girls and women. Turning Point released a video of female high-school students from Mesa asking, “Why would you think it’s OK to have boys come into my bathroom?” The nondiscrimination ordinance does not in fact apply to schools or churches. Ms. Spilsbury has defended her vote for it by saying that transgender people should have the right to use public restrooms in peace. Still, the attacks have resonated. In interviews across Mesa, several people cited transgender issues as their main reason for recalling Ms. Spilsbury. “She has a woke agenda,” said Maria Grainger, who set out an oversize campaign poster supporting Ms. Spilsbury’s opponent in her front yard, attached to an antique truck. “She wants little boys in girls’ locker rooms.” But down the street, two of Ms. Grainger’s fellow Republican neighbors, John and Nanette Updike, said they could not fathom how so many of their neighbors had turned against Ms. Spilsbury, known best by many for the homemade cinnamon rolls she brings to gatherings. “It’s gotten so out of control, so ridiculous,” Ms. Updike, 71, said. “This was a City Council election for heaven’s sakes. People are turning against one another. Why are we not looking for good in the world instead of tearing people down?” The Updikes voted for Mr. Trump, and said they admired Mr. Kirk. They watched the livestream of his memorial service last month, as nearly 100,000 people streamed into a pair of sports stadiums in nearby Glendale, Ariz., to watch Mr. Trump and other conservative leaders eulogize Mr. Kirk. But the couple said they did not like how much time and effort Turning Point, which is based in Phoenix, had spent to influence an election in their backyard. Everywhere Ms. Spilsbury goes knocking on doors and speaking to voters, she said people ask her whether she regrets endorsing Ms. Harris. It made her a political target and did nothing to prevent Mr. Trump from easily winning Arizona. Now, as the Trump administration prosecutes the president’s political foes and purges opponents from the federal government, it is far from certain that anti-Trump Republicans like Ms. Spilsbury have a future in their party.
