Chants of "Charlie, Charlie" broke out on the second night of President Donald Trump's midterm convention as Republicans paid tribute Thursday to Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA leader who was assassinated one year ago.
The normally festive and rowdy crowd inside the basketball arena in Dallas quickly hushed as a five-minute memorial video began playing. It was a somber interlude in the convention's parade of candidates.
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“One year later, there is something wonderfully defiant about the fact that his voice has not grown quieter,” said Lucas Miles, a pastor and Turning Point vice president. He said the organization's membership and social media following have "multiplied.”
Vice President JD Vance, a friend of Kirk’s, spoke directly to Kirk's two children, now ages 4 and 2.
“History will record that your father was a great man,” Vance said.
He recalled being nervous while giving his speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention as a newly elected senator with little experience in politics, and finding comfort in looking down to see that Kirk "was smiling and cheering me and reminding me that I had a good friend right here in the convention hall.”
Kirk was a singular figure on the right. He created a sprawling network of chapters on college campuses, hosted an influential podcast and built a loyal following among young Christian conservatives. He was also a powerbroker on the right with relationships across various factions that comprise Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Vance recalled Kirk's factional peacemaking as he implored his fellow Republicans not to let their differences divide the party and allow Democrats to take power.
“Do what Charlie did,” he said. “Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
Kirk was shot and killed Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University.
Tyler Robinson, 23, could face the death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder in Kirk’s death. He has pleaded not guilty. He turned himself in a day after the shooting.
No one has emerged to fully fill Kirk’s shoes since his death, and the movement he built has been rattled by infighting over the circumstances of his death. A vocal contingent, led by prominent podcaster Candice Owens, has questioned the official narrative of Utah prosecutors who say Robinson was the lone killer. Conspiracy theories have proliferated online.
Miles seemed to address the tension from the stage.
“Turning Point is not dead,” he said. “The organization Charlie founded is still growing. A new generation is stepping forward.”
Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, was named CEO of Turning Point and has taken on some of his public speaking roles. Turning Point has also enlisted other commentators to speak at events and continue the public debates he enjoyed staging.
Meanwhile, Turning Point held a Thursday evening memorial for Kirk in Orem, Utah, in a return to the Utah Valley University campus where he was killed.
“We have felt the weight of his absence in ways that never seem to get easier,” Turning Point said in a news release marking the anniversary.
Conservative speakers including Frank Turek and Michael Knowles addressed a packed auditorium that frequently broke out into chants of “U-S-A!”
During the program, Turning Point unveiled onstage a larger-than-life bronze statue of Kirk sitting and holding a microphone.
The group also installed a statue of Kirk outside its Phoenix headquarters earlier in the day.
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Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Dallas and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles contributed.
