The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is having a galvanizing effect on the conservative movement as both parties prepare for next year’s midterm elections.
In a sign of how young conservatives are already mobilizing, Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk co-founded and led, announced last week it had received 37,000 new chapter requests in the 48 hours following the shooting.
While the midterms are just more than a year out, Republicans say the mobilization of young conservatives builds upon a trend of young voters increasingly voting Republican.
“The youth have taken this as sort of a shot against them,” said Matt Whitlock, a GOP strategist and former senior adviser to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Kirk’s death has evoked comparisons with the two assassination attempts against President Trump in the run-up to last year’s election. Like the Trump campaign did following those incidents, Turning Point USA has invoked Kirk’s assassination in its fundraising calls to supporters.
“In the same way that Trump supporters really rallied to President Trump when he was attacked, young Americans feel like someone who really cared about and spoke to them being attacked is a similar rally cry,” Whitlock said.
That rallying cry was broadcast loud and clear last week, when Kirk’s wife, Erika, predicted the impact her late husband’s death would have on the political landscape and the country as a whole.
“You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife, the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry,” Kirk’s widow said in an address last week.
Trump and Republicans were already making significant gains with young voters, marking a shift in the demographic that has typically leaned more to the left.
While Trump did not win 18 to 29-year-olds outright in 2024, he noticeably improved his standing among that voting bloc. According to the Pew Research Center, former Vice President Kamala Harris won the bloc by 19 points. Former President Biden won the group in 2020 by 26 points, while Hillary Clinton won the group by 30 points in 2016.
However, Trump did win men aged 18 to 49 by 1 point, according to Pew’s data. Biden, by contrast, won the group by 10 points in 2020, while Clinton lost the group by 1 point in 2016.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who has been credited as the brains behind Trump’s 2024 win, said Kirk and Turning Point USA delivered “110 percent” in the campaign.
“I don’t know that Charlie gets enough credit for that,” Wiles told Vice President Vance, who was guest hosting “The Charlie Kirk Show” on Monday. “That was a tactical assist to the campaign. We didn’t have to pay for it. We didn’t have to think about. We didn’t have to follow up after him. It was an immeasurable help.”
Republicans are already seeking to activate the power of Kirk’s message, which has only been amplified following his death.
“What’s been interesting for me to see is how many people who are closeted Republicans from the last five, 10 years, who have come out and shown some conservative values in either praising Charlie, praising his work or condemning the horrible things that have been said against him,” Whitlock said.
One national Republican operative predicted the response from those who have celebrated Kirk’s death will likely push conservative and swing voters alike towards the GOP ahead of next year.
“Seeing this and the aftermath of it, I think people will see that the Republicans are the party of common sense because we continue to see Democrats calling out Republicans as fascists and using this violent rhetoric just because they can’t win the debate,” the operative said, referencing one of the unfired bullet casings allegedly belonging to the suspect in Kirk’s murder.
Vance claimed Tuesday that “people on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence,” while Trump has vowed to investigate left-leaning groups in connection with Kirk’s assassination.
Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee accused House Democrats of not condemning Kirk’s assassination because they are “terrified of their radical base.”
However, a number of high-profile Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and Biden condemned Kirk’s assassination. Meanwhile, various Democrats have also been victims of political violence in recent months. Shapiro’s home was firebombed in April, and in June, Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman was shot and killed along with her husband in what officials described as a “politically motivated” attack.
Regardless, data shows that Republicans are beginning to gain a leg up with young voters ahead of 2026.
According to a report released Tuesday from The Hill’s partners at Decision Desk HQ, Gen Z is currently by registration the most-pro Republican generation alive. And within that age group, there is an even starker divide between women and men.
According to DDHQ, 47 percent of young white women are registered as Democrats, while only 29 percent of young white men are registered as Democrats, marking an 18-point gap.
The trend is also evident in nonwhite men as well, where voter registration has plummeted from 66 percent to 54 percent. Among nonwhite women, registration has ticked down from 80 percent to 75 percent.
“Millennials formed the backbone of Obama-era victories, and many assumed that Gen Z would follow in their footsteps,” the report read. “The opposite happened.”
Conservatives note Kirk’s accessibility and reliability was key in his appeal to young conservatives and students on college campuses.
“Charlie Kirk just seems like a normal dude who you would see on college campuses and share a lot of ideas with, and he talked like a very normal person,” the operative said. “This kind of hits harder because he’s very relatable to the average, young American who shares a lot of ideas with him.”
They also argue Kirk assassination only builds on his original work of making conservatism appealing to young voters.
“Charlie had this goal of making conservatism and making the Republican Party cool again to young people,” Whitlock said.
“It’s horrific that it came at his death, but his death has made a lot more people feel more emboldened to stand for what they believe in.”
