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Conservative leaders and commentators are reflecting on the life, legacy, and enduring impact of Charlie Kirk, remembering how the Turning Point USA founder shaped a generation of young conservatives and left a lasting mark on the movement.
Turning Point USA is an organization started by Kirk in 2012 with the mission to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government,” according to the group’s website.
Fox News Digital spoke with conservative voices Rob Smith, Arynne Wexler, Lily Kate and Amir Odom about the impact of Kirk on their lives and on America.
“I owe kind of basically my entire career in the conservative movement and conservative media to Charlie Kirk,” said Smith, a political commentator.
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“I started making a lot of noise on social media. And then I got, you know, connected with Charlie Kirk in Turning Point USA. And so that’s… when my platform really elevated much more beyond, you know, social media to television and speaking,” Smith said.
Smith credits his career to Kirk.
“I wouldn’t be doing anything that I’m doing if it weren’t for him. If it weren’t for him seeing something in me,” he said.
Smith applauded Kirk for acknowledging the need for a variety of voices within the conservative movement. He contributed to the organization from 2019 to 2022, and described himself as one of its “first contributors.”
“I came out as a conservative in about 2018. It was the non-traditional conservative, this Black gay guy. I’m just like, you know, one of the first people to really do it.”
Wexler, a conservative political commentator and a speaker at Turning Point USA “Young Women’s Leadership Summit” in June, applauded Kirk for his effort to facilitate conversations on college campuses.
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“He is the person in the conservative movement who truly cared about the next generation of America… And he was the person who chose not to give up on college campuses.”
Wexler continued, “Charlie Kirk was a man who never walked out of the fight and neither should we. So this is the time to stand by your values, to register voters, to create chapters at your school. The last thing you should be doing is be scared out of your values, because that’s exactly the opposite of what Charlie showed us.”
Kate, a conservative influencer and former Turning Point ambassador, said about Kirk, “He is an American original. He is a national treasure. And we’re lucky to be around to witness Charlie Kirk.”
Kate elaborated on the impact following Kirk’s assassination, describing the spiritual “revival” she sees occurring.
“I’ve been seeing videos all over of hundreds of thousands of people actually showing up to church. I have gotten texts and DMs from people saying, because of Charlie, I opened my Bible for the first time in 10 years. For the first I ever prayed to Jesus because Charlie told me to.”
“Charlie was really the leader of the movement, especially the leader the youth movement. He wanted people to come together, to join hands, to get off their phones, to stop scrolling, to have real conversations,” Kate said.
Kate said, “Charlie was always cordial, always kind. Many, many times I’ve seen him debate in person and online, and he’s perfectly respectful.”
Amir Odom, who hosts a YouTube show, said about Kirk, “He meant a lot for really promoting people to use their voice in an effective way.”
Odom attended the Young Black Leadership Summit in 2018, an event hosted by Turning Point, where young Black Americans were invited to the White House and “then attend a conference that was led by a bunch of Black leaders, Black entrepreneurs, Black artists, Black actors, and just hear from their experience from a different lens,” Odom described.
Odom said about the conservative movement moving forward, “I just see it becoming more loud. I see it becoming more unified, and I see it becoming, you know, just bigger than what it is now.”
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“We’re seeing record numbers for people signing up to create Turning Point chapters, in high schools and college campuses. We’re seeing more people be vocal online. We’re seeing another mass exodus of people leaving the left,” said Odom.
Kate said, “Now is the time to stand up to triple, quadruple the amount of events that we’re doing in person, to have more conversations, to encourage more debate, just to carry the torch that he set for us.”
“There will never be another Charlie Kirk,” Smith said. “So there need to be thousands of mini Charlie Kirks.”
“He was exactly the type of American that every young man should strive to be, and the type of man that every woman should try and marry,” Kate said.
On Thursday, Turning Point USA announced that Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, will become CEO and chair of the board. The group said on X and Instagram, “Charlie expressed to multiple executives that this is what he wanted in the event of his death.”
Fox News’ Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi contributed to this report.
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