by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News September 10, 2026
One year after his death, Charlie Kirk’s impact is still being felt and his legacy is still a work in progress.
TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet, who worked with Kirk at the organization for eight years, said of Kirk’s death: “It was traumatic, I think, for the entire country—of all ages, but really for Gen Z and millennials.” Those groups born after 1981 grew up watching Kirk’s videos on the internet, logging billions of views.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10, 2025. / Gage Skidmore /
CC BY-SA 2.0
“After his death, it was almost like round two,” Kolvet said. “Everybody rediscovered all the videos again—and a wider audience did. … I absolutely believe that Charlie’s legacy has probably not nearly been written yet.”
Tyler Robinson, 23, pleaded not guilty to all seven charges against him, including aggravated murder for allegedly creating a risk of death to others when prosecutors say he shot Kirk at Utah Valley University. The aggravated murder charge makes Robinson eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
Prosecutors on Tuesday said Robinson targeted Kirk because he found Kirk’s anti-LGBTQ message “repugnant” given his trans-lover lifestyle.
Vice President JD Vance, a friend of Kirk, said during an Aug. 20 podcast that it “enrages” him when people make accusations implicating people close to Kirk such as his widow, who now heads TPUSA.
The assassination of Kirk “forced political violence into the national conversation and inspired lawmakers to propose dozens of ways to honor him, ranging from bolstering free speech to establishing memorial highways,” Janice Hisle wrote for The Epoch Times.
A TPUSA tribute to Kirk said his death also touched off “a wave of Christian revival that spread far beyond the United States, igniting prayer gatherings, worship events, and renewed faith commitments,” adding that Kirk “emboldened young people, challenged cultural norms, and called a generation to courage.”
Kirk’s influence made huge impact on younger voters making a right turn in 2024.
“One of the most surprising statistics from the 2024 presidential election was the surge of support President Trump received from Gen Z voters,” the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University reported. “While these voters, born between 1997 and 2012, turned out in fewer numbers across all demographics in 2024 as compared to 2020, their voting preferences shifted to the right.”
Republicans are hoping what Kirk set in motion at TPUSA will help the in the 2026 midterms where most polling shows Democrats poised to re-take control of Congress.
“Everything within Turning Point, all the different programs, the verticals, everything’s growing … it’s kind of bursting at the seams,” Kolvet told the New York Post.
“Whether you look at our field programs, our social media, our media productions, our church partnerships, Turning Point Action [the group’s political advocacy arm], we have more ballot chasers. We’re light years ahead of where we were in 2024, just as far as get out the vote efforts.”
“Everything that we can control is growing,” Kolvet said, “but that doesn’t mean that we’re not aware of the fact that we exist within an ecosystem where you know a lot of young people are feeling disenchanted by politics in general and conservative politics.”
The Turning Point spokesman noted that the war in Iran and the Trump Administration’s rollout of the Jeffrey Epstein files were not particularly well received on college campuses.
“This is a generation that’s faced a lot of structural challenges,” Kolvet said, pointing to the Covid pandemic, inflation during the Biden Administration, the 2008 financial crisis, soaring housing prices and artificial intelligence.
“So, it’s easy to feel disenchanted with politics, or – the worst option – become radicalized by free-stuff populism, which is just socialism,” he said.
Within weeks of Kirk’s slaying, 120,000 students inquired about starting a new Turning Point chapter, according to TPUSA.
Through its Pick Up the Mic initiative, TPUSA is moving its founder’s legacy forward.
“Charlie Kirk built a movement from under a tent with one table, one mic, and a line of students stepping forward to debate. Now the tent is back, and a new generation of TPUSA chapters is bringing that presence to the center of campus,” the group’s website says, calling this “free speech in action.”
Kolvet predicted that 40 years from now, the “crop of young leaders that he inspired are going to go on and do great things, and they will be the firewall for freedom that this country needs.”
Before he died, Kirk made it clear to those leaders-in-training that they must stand firm against the spread of socialism.
“We’re doing our part to tell young people that free market capitalism is the most moral, proven, and effective system,” Kolvet said. “It’s lifted more people out of poverty across the world than any other economic system has.”
