What to know about Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA
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President Trump on stage with Charlie Kirk in 2023. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Charlie Kirk died Wednesday at 31 after being shot during a debate hosted by his conservative activist organization Turning Point USA.
The big picture: The youth vote was trending left in the decades before President Trump's comeback in the 2024 election, and Turning Point has been credited for helping secure the wave of young people that delivered Trump his victory.
Driving the news: Kirk was shot during a "Prove Me Wrong" table at Utah Valley University on Wednesday as part of his "American Comeback Tour."
- The table, where Kirk invited people to debate him over often controversial issues, frequently went viral for Kirk's unapologetic conservative views.
- Police are investigating the shooting with assistance from federal agents, FBI Director Kash Patel said on X.
What they're saying: "No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie," President Trump wrote on Truth Social.
- "He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us."
Zoom in: Kirk co-founded Turning Point in 2012, which describes itself as the "largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country."
- The organization says it "empowers" young activists to "build grassroots networks on every high school and college campus in America" and educates students about the "importance of freedom, free markets, and limited government."
- While Kirk and Turning Point were widely praised by conservatives, liberal critics said his provocative style and rhetoric at times could be anti-Muslim, sexist and transphobic.
- Turning Point has roughly 3,500 high school and college campuses nationwide, and has helped "thousands of college students apply for voter registration and access absentee ballots," according to its website.
By the numbers: Trump was the headliner for Turning Point's annual AmericaFest last year, where Kirk assembled 21,000 MAGA diehards, many of whom were in college, to celebrate the president's victory in the 2024 election.
Zoom out: America's youngest voters were trending left, but 18- to-24-year-olds are now more likely to lean right than the generation before them, according to a 2024 poll from Harvard.
- Roughly 26% of men ages 18-24 now identify as conservative, compared to 21% of 25-to-29-year-old men.
- The divide is more stark amongst young men than women, and in a stunning flip, the youngest men were more likely to identify as conservative than liberal.
Go deeper: Turning Point festival mobilizes Trump youth, podcast army
