Charlie Kirk’s widow will take over leadership of Turning Point USA, the organization said Sept. 18.
Erika Kirk will serve as CEO and chair the group’s board of directors. An announcement from the board said Charlie Kirk had said he wanted his wife to take over in the event of his death. The vote was unanimous.
That letter listed four board members: Doug De Groote, a financial planner in Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Mike Miller, a jeweler in Barrington, Ill.; Tom Sodeika, owner of a payroll management company in Oakbrook, Ill.; and David Engelhardt, a New York attorney, pastor and entrepreneur.
Charlie Kirk and Erika Kirk both were board members, bringing the total to six originally. Well-established practices in nonprofit management suggest it is unusual for the founder and leader of a nonprofit also to serve as chair of its board, which creates a conflict of interest. However, that was the case with Charlie Kirk and will now be the case with Erika Kirk.
In the week after Charlie Kirk’s murder, speculation varied on who would lead the $85 million nonprofit organization that works with an $11 million political operation called TPUSA Action.
Ben Shapiro roasts a Barbie
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire told Fox News, “We’re going to pick up that blood-stained microphone where Charlie left it,” leading some to speculate Shapiro would take a leadership role in TPUSA.
That seemed unlikely in part because Shapiro is Jewish, while TPUSA’s messaging is geared toward white evangelicals who believe America is a Christian nation.
Other rumored replacements included GOP politicians, former college swimmer and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, and conservative commentator Candice Owens, who works with TPUSA’s Blexit outreach to Black voters.
As recently as Tuesday, TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said, “We don’t know what the future holds for everything.”
The TPUSA website says in eight days the group received 62,000 requests from high school and college students nationwide to start a chapter or get involved with an existing chapter.
Charlie Kirk as a high school senior
Kirk founded the organization when he was 18 and has been the face of TPUSA. He was the up-front celebrity at its events, including the “American Comeback Tour” of college campuses. He was a compelling speaker and debater who made conservativism and Trump appealing to thousands of students at university rallies and had more than 5 million followers on X. He also successfully wooed the older conservatives who funded TPUSA.
TPUSA has more than 450 employees, down from more than 700 in 2022, but none of them has Kirk’s charisma or anywhere near his following.
“Charlie had a magic over the kids,” said President Donald Trump, who was reelected with the help of TPUSA’s get-out-the-youth-vote operation.
Soon after Kirk’s death, his widow posted a video message promising to “make Turning Point USA the biggest thing that this nation has ever seen.”
“If you thought my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea,” she said. “You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country, in this world.”
She described her late husband as “America’s greatest martyr to the freedom of speech he so adored.”
Erika Kirk, 36, was raised Catholic in Arizona and was crowned Miss Arizona in 2012. Nine years ago, she founded Everyday Heroes Like You, a nonprofit she described as a way to “promote and highlight the everyday heroes in our communities who have a philanthropic desire to truly make a difference in the lives of others.”
At Arizona State University, she studied political science and international relations. She later attended Liberty University, where she earned a juris master degree (a law degree for non-lawyers) and a doctorate in Christian leadership. In 2019, she launched the podcast “Midweek Rise Up.” She also is CEO of Proclaim Streetwear, a clothing brand, and has worked as a real estate agent at the Corcoran Group in New York City.
Next up is a memorial service for Charlie Kirk to be held Sunday morning at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. The dress code calls for “Sunday Best — Red, White or Blue.”
The memorial service will be held at 11 a.m., the time most Protestant churches across America hold Sunday morning worship. The stadium seats 63,000 people and overflow seating will be available at the nearby Desert Diamond Arena, home of the Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers.
The lineup of speakers reads more like a political rally than a memorial service, with headliners including Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Erika Kirk. Others listed as speaking include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump Jr., Tucker Carlson, Stephen Miller and Sergio Gor.
Publicity says “worship” will be led by Chris Tomlin, Brandon Lake, Phil Wickham, Kari Jobe Carnes and Cody Carnes.
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