Vice President Vance honored Charlie Kirk in a lengthy post on X Wednesday night, saying the conservative activist “ran a good race.”
“And now that Charlie is in heaven, I’ll ask him to talk to big man directly on behalf of his family, his friends, and the country he loved so dearly,” Vance said. “You ran a good race, my friend. We’ve got it from here.”
A source told The Hill’s Alex Gangitano that Vance and his wife, Usha, will travel to Salt Lake City on Thursday to pay respects to Kirk’s family. Kirk, 31, is survived by his wife, Erika, and two children.
The Vances were previously scheduled to visit Ground Zero in New York City to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Thursday.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and a close ally of President Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday, at an event on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah — roughly 40 miles from Salt Lake City. Local officials said Thursday that the assassin, who is still at large, likely fired from a rooftop nearby.
Vance said in his post that Kirk first reached out to him in 2017, after he appeared on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show. The vice president added that before he launched his Senate candidacy in 2021, Kirk “was one of the first people I called,” and played a key role in his 2022 victory.
In addition to Vance, Kirk was close with Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., with the duo pushing the elder Trump to select the then-Ohio senator as his running mate last summer.
“Like me, he was skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016,” Vance said. “Like me, he came to see President Trump as the only figure capable of moving American politics away from the globalism that had dominated for our entire lives.”
Kirk also played a key role in the Trump-Vance campaign’s ground game during the 2024 election. Vance noted that Kirk mobilized voters in his adopted home state of Arizona. Kirk, who was born in Illinois, spent part of his adult life in Scottsdale, Arizona.
CNN reported Wednesday that Kirk temporarily relocated to Palm Beach, Florida, during the Trump-Vance transition, and was even considered for a position in the administration. While in Florida, Kirk met with prospective cabinet appointees.
“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance said. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”
