For 18-year-old Erin Andrews, Charlie Kirk was someone who kept her connected, entertained, and even inspired in an isolated time.
COVID-19 had canceled in-person school when she first discovered his videos online at age 13 from her Northeast Philadelphia home. She felt more at ease being young, conservative, and Christian after listening to him.
“At the time in my life, I really had no motivation. I had no direction,” she said at the vigil for Kirk in Northeast Philadelphia last week. “He kind of gave me a sense, a purpose.”
Kirk, the 31-year-old Republican activist who was shot and killed during an appearance at a Utah college last week, helped build and shape a force of conservative young people nationally, including in Pennsylvania.
Since Kirk came onto the political scene around 2012, when he launched his organization at the age of 18, he was a controversial proponent of conservative issues. He championed free speech, civic engagement, and family values, while staunchly opposing abortion, LGBTQ rights, gun control, and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and would debate students about the issues on college campuses. In doing so, he reached hundreds of thousands.
Young conservatives here credit him with spurring their involvement in politics — participation that proved crucial to the 2024 election in the battleground state. President Donald Trump won Pennsylvania last November in part because of a marked shift to the right among Gen-Z voters. Forty-four percent of voters under 30 in Pennsylvania supported Trump, an 18-point swing from the number who backed him here in 2020.
These young voters now idolize Kirk as they pledge to open college campus chapters for Turning Point USA, the organization he founded, champion Republican causes, and register more voters Republican in a critical swing state. His death could be a galvanizing moment as the GOP looks to flip the statewide voter registration edge Democrats have had for decades.
“It makes you want to get in the fight more,” said Andrews, a freshman who applied to start a Turning Point chapter at Holy Family University after Kirk’s killing. “He has a legacy. You know, I feel it’s responsible for every young conservative to make sure it lives on.”
As those who disagreed with Kirk have faced backlash and threats, prompting a nationwide reckoning on the state of free speech in America, Kirk’s followers continue to mourn — and organize. At a memorial for him Sunday in an Arizona football stadium several speakers described him as a martyr, and his death as a decisive moment in a conservative moment he helped build.
» READ MORE: They talked about Charlie Kirk’s death on social media. Now, they’re getting death threats.
Turning Point USA has reported a huge uptick in requests to start college and high school chapters in the aftermath of its founder’s death, which is prompting some concerns from parents and left-leaning organizations about the group, which focuses on Christianity, expanding into public schools.
Of the organization’s 1,200 high school groups called, “Club America,” five are in New Jersey and six in Pennsylvania.
Mike Gottesman, a New Jersey-based public education advocate, condemned Kirk’s killing and political violence, while also calling the expansion of the chapters concerning.
“They’re trying to make him into this wonderful person and a folk hero when in fact there was a lot of hate going on.’”
‘Like a volcano’
The day after Kirk’s death, Billy Walker, president of the Temple University Republicans, received nine requests to join the club — a high number, he said, for a conservative group in a heavily Democratic city.
“He made it easier for me to come out and speak my mind,” Walker, a senior, said of Kirk. “After he died, I think a lot of people got fed up and even more said well, you know, now I’m going to speak my mind, too.”
At the Pennsylvania Republicans’ party meeting in State College Friday and Saturday, leaders emphasized Kirk’s impact on GOP political organizing and elections moving forward.
Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons called Kirk’s death the start of a “political revival” in remarks to the crowd.
Luc Doolittle, the 24-year-old chair of the Jefferson County GOP, said in an interview that he ran for school board at age 18, partly because of Kirk’s message that “we need these young people stepping up to the plate.’”
Now he sees the influence on the next generation in the middle school-age students in his rural school district, where he teaches seventh grade history.
His students were asking him about Kirk the day after his assassination and one eighth-grader wore a shirt memorializing the GOP organizer.
“His message was able to resonate with kids and young adults who felt like, ‘hey, my future is really uncertain, I think that changes need to be made in order for me to have the life that my parents had,’” Doolittle said.
With less than two months until the next election, some Republicans admit they are wary of their chances in November’s local and statewide judicial elections, but think Kirk’s death could have a rallying effect in Pennsylvania’s 2026 midterms with a governor’s race and several Congressional contests on the ballot.
Jim Worthington, a Bucks County GOP organizer, said as much ahead of a recent get-out-the-vote event in Kirk’s honor. Worthington marveled at the response from Kirk’s young followers.
“He’s almost like a volcano — you see the tip of it and you know how effective and powerful it could be, but you didn’t realize that down below it just broadened.”
Since his death, Kirk’s following has expanded beyond a largely young and far-right contingent. The gathering of people holding candles in the Northeast last week was a mix of young and old, staunch MAGA followers, and some who said they had only recently learned who Kirk was.
Ann Partridge, 42, a cleaner at an elementary school in Mayfair, stood shoulder to shoulder with her 15-year-old son, Jeffrey.
“I’ve been following him for years, his podcasts, YouTube, Instagram,” Jeffrey said. “He always spoke the truth. I’m not too interested in politics, but I liked him because he was funny.”
Ann Partridge said Kirk’s death was “like losing a family member.” She thinks that’s partly because Kirk wasn’t an elected politician.
Early in the event, a self-proclaimed “Jan 6. political prisoner,” who did not give his name, addressed the crowd, and thanked Kirk for supporting him and others who stormed the Capitol that day.
“This man was a man of courage. He did not allow what was politically correct to hold him back from what God had put in his heart,” the man said.
Later, State Sen. Joe Picozzi, a Gen Z Republican who represents Northeast Philadelphia and had organized the vigil, led a prayer for both Kirk and former Minnesota Democratic State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, who were killed in their home three months ago. Picozzi, 30, also recognized children killed in a recent school shooting in Minneapolis.
In the days since his death, Kirk has become a martyr to a movement that recently saw two attempted assassinations on its leader, Trump, including in Butler, Pa., where a bullet grazed Trump’s ear in a shooting that also left one rally attendee dead and two others injured. That sentiment was palpable at the vigil.
“This was an attack on the body of Christ,” said Lisa Schupe, a Northeast Philadelphia resident, who addressed the gathered crowd at the vigil.
Artificial intelligence-created renderings of Kirk alongside depictions of Jesus Christ are circulating on social media. Andrew Kolvet, who produced The Charlie Kirk Show, posted one of Kirk with other assassinated Americans from U.S. history, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. Kirk had criticized King and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The Rev. Bernice King, one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughters, said of the image, “There are so many things wrong with this.”
As Kirk’s followers hold him up as an icon of free speech, his critics have pointed to the incendiary comments for which he became known.
“Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America,” Kirk said in a post on X just one day before his death, linking to a video where he framed Islam and LGBTQ identities as threats to the American way of life.
For Arnold Osmani, 30, a building supervisor, Kirk‘s boldness, whether you agreed with him or not, was a welcome introduction to U.S. politics after moving to the country from Albania.
“I wasn’t agreeing with him on everything, but I was with him in many things,” Osmani said. “So to be honest with you, this, the killing of him, is affecting me a lot because I think that everyone should express their opinion here, especially in the United States of America.”
Osmani dismissed concerns that retaliation toward people speaking against Kirk could hinder that free speech, evenas examples of a crackdown from the government and private businesses become more apparent.
“I feel that I can say whatever I want,” Osmani said. “I can practice my free speech — but with rules and in a civilized manner.”
Jason Grentsky, an 18-year-old freshman at Penn State Abington, will vote in his first election this November. He said for him, part of being politically engaged isn’t just fighting for conservative causes but continuing to talk to more left-leaning people.
“I might not agree with you, and that’s fine, but let’s talk. Because, like Charlie had said, when you stop talking, when you go behind the screen, bad things can happen.”