How Charlie Kirk Changed American Politics

Kirk, along with Theo Von and Joe Rogan, helped Voldemort flip the script among Gen Z. I suspect his murder will add fuel to this movement. See 2nd story below.

Kirk's message, which was heavily laced with Bible thumping, had its high and lows. His rhetoric on the 2nd amendment didn't entirely land with that cohort. On the other hand, his command of facts and ability to think on his feet were exceptional.

In the end, his biggest shortcoming was the caricature that Sam Kinison lampooned several decades earlier.

How Charlie Kirk Changed American Politics

He offered young voters an alternative to left-wing content on social media.

By John Brabender, WSJ

Sept. 15, 2025 4:48 pm ET

While it may be an exaggeration to say Charlie Kirk won the presidential race for Donald Trump, Kirk had a bigger effect on the November 2024 election than most people realize. His organization, Turning Point USA, has always focused on evangelizing the conservative message on college campuses, where it had rarely been heard. As one Journal headline pointed out, “Young Voters Helped Fuel Trump’s Win.”

In the 2018 and 2020 elections, Republicans got crushed among younger voters. Democratic support among this age group was the highest it had been in decades. The trend continued in 2022. But a review of 2024 exit polls tells a different story.

Mr. Trump improved dramatically among younger voters in six of the seven critical battleground states, particularly among college-age voters. His surprising double-digit gains among younger voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin gave him razor-thin victories in these crucial states.

In addition, internal polling data from the Trump campaign and public polling data reveal that college-age voters increasingly describe themselves as conservative. This is a significant change for the party of Lincoln, which ignored the youngest voters for decades on the mistaken assumption that they wouldn’t start moving right until they start paying taxes.

Kirk understood that Generation Z, the largest and most diverse American generation in history, has become an electoral force. He also knew that Gen Z’s main source for political news is an unrelenting flow of left-leaning social-media content—almost all of it user-generated.

This has resulted in an additional problem for conservatives. Previous generations of young voters were rarely seekers of current news, and often their personal political ideologies didn’t congeal until they were in their early 20s. The youth of today, on the other hand, begin receiving politically related messages during their teens. They aren’t necessarily seeking political news but nevertheless receive a tremendous amount, most of it left-leaning. The result? Their ideologies begin taking shape at younger ages.

To confirm this, my firm, BrabenderCox, recently ran a large-scale advertising test. We sent a political ad featuring a fictional candidate for Congress to 1,000 Gen Z participants. Half the sample received an ad with the candidate identified as a Republican at the end. The other half received the same ad but the candidate’s logo at the end identified him as a Democrat. Overwhelmingly the fictional Democrat was rated higher than the Republican. This confirmed a systemic brand-image problem among younger voters regarding the GOP—and by extension conservatism.

In another Gen Z study we asked: “Do you feel comfortable sharing your political ideology and your political beliefs with your closest friends?” Among self-identified liberals, 68% responded yes, while only 39% of conservatives did. When Kirk began arriving on campus, it gave conservative students a voice—as well as the courage to stand up for their values. It’s possible that Kirk’s assassination will send campus conservatives into hiding. But I believe it will have the opposite effect.

It will be hard to forget the horror of last week. But we should also never forget Charlie Kirk’s effect on America’s future, and his role in advancing President Trump’s conservative agenda for the nation.

Mr. Brabender was a media consultant for the Trump 2024 campaign.

Trump Advisers Prepare to Target Left-Leaning Groups After Kirk Shooting

GOP looks to harness outrage, draw younger voters ahead of midterm elections

By Alex Leary, Aaron Zitner and Siobhan Hughes, WSJ

Updated Sept. 15, 2025

The White House is looking to convert support for Charlie Kirk into political momentum.

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WASHINGTON—The White House is moving swiftly to galvanize the outpouring of support for slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk into political momentum, as President Trump’s advisers weigh a slate of executive actions targeting liberal organizations.

Among the actions being discussed by the president’s team: reviewing the tax-exempt status of left-leaning nonprofit groups and targeting them with anticorruption laws, according to administration officials. The president could begin rolling out the actions as soon as this week, officials said, part of a bid to harness support for Kirk, particularly among young voters, ahead of the midterm elections.

Officials across the administration are working to identify groups suspected of targeting conservatives or causes conservatives support. That could include looking at attacks on Tesla showrooms earlier this year, as well as people who have retaliated against law enforcement carrying out Trump’s deportation campaign, the officials said, adding that perpetrators could be categorized as domestic terrorists.

The White House also plans to highlight what it sees as violent rhetoric from opponents, amplifying a law-and-order focus that has for weeks been a centerpiece of Trump’s political messaging.

Investigators are still examining the motives of the alleged shooter, a 22-year-old who was deeply entangled in internet and gaming culture. A bullet casing recovered from the rifle allegedly used by the shooter had an inscription carved into it that read, “Hey fascist! Catch!”

The White House has offered few details to support its allegations against left-leaning groups.

Throughout his political career, Trump has unified his voter base by arguing that it faced threats from Democrats and the political left, telling voters, for example, that the criminal prosecutions he faced before the 2024 election were really an effort to disempower his supporters. Democrats say Trump’s own rhetoric has divided the nation and amplified animosity between the parties. Public figures in both parties have been the victims of violence in recent years.

The shooting has shaken and enraged Trump’s allies, triggering calls for action from conservatives. Kirk’s political group, Turning Point USA, has received 37,000 requests to establish chapters at high schools and colleges, according to an official who works for the group.

Vice President JD Vance hosted Kirk’s eponymous podcast on Monday, signaling the White House’s desire to remain close to Kirk’s followers and draw new people to the MAGA political movement. In a speech to influential Republican donors on Friday night, Vance said Kirk should inspire them ahead of the midterms.

Vice President JD Vance hosted an episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show” from the White House to honor the conservative activist who was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University. Photo: Doug Mills/Pool/Getty Images

“Take that commitment to American greatness, take that commitment to our civic virtue and take that recognition that a very good man gave his life for his country, and let’s go win—and win for the right damn reasons,” Vance said, according to people in the room.

Trump will speak at Kirk’s funeral in Phoenix on Sunday, and he will be joined by several administration officials, many who had personal bonds with Kirk.

Hours after the shooting, Trump began blaming the “radical left” for demonizing Kirk and other conservatives, and his allies have echoed that message on social media and in television interviews. “We are going to use every resource we have…throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Monday on Kirk’s program.

Later Monday, Miller told reporters that Attorney General Pam Bondi would investigate who is funding groups whose members engage in violence during protests and other activities. “They will now be criminally liable,” Miller said.

Trump said Monday that he might target George Soros, the legendary investor and liberal philanthropist, and others under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly known as RICO. He said he would consider designating the far-left movement known as antifa as a domestic terror organization. Vance, during his appearance on Kirk’s podcast, also mentioned Soros, pointing to his group, the Open Society Foundations, which has said it doesn’t fund or support violent protests.

The recent developments came as the two parties were settling on their arguments to voters for the midterm elections, still 14 months away, with Democrats focusing on the economy and the cost of everyday goods, and Republicans focusing on crime and what they see as violent rhetoric aimed at their party.

Democrats, who have struggled to find their footing since last year’s presidential election, have started to unify around blaming Trump for what they say is a weak economy. Some polling suggests voters aren’t sold on the GOP’s tax-and-spending law, the party’s central domestic policy measure. A loss of either the House or Senate, or both, would be a major setback for Trump’s agenda.

A memorial service on Sunday honoring Kirk at Washington’s Kennedy Center drew an overflow crowd. “I just don’t remember ever being this sad or angry at the death of somebody I’d never met,” said Jeremiah Miller, who with his wife and two young children drove from Manassas, Va., for the Kennedy Center vigil. He said his church that morning “was busier than Christmas.” And when he called his mother in New Hampshire, she described the same phenomenon at her church.

One challenge for the White House in using the government to target political opponents is the potential for being accused of hypocrisy, given Trump has for years railed against government weaponization and what he views as attacks on free speech. An administration official said the president’s team is sensitive to that dynamic as it considers actions. But there is strong support among Trump’s allies for calling out groups suspected of celebrating Kirk’s death and the people who finance liberal organizations.

Any effort to revoke tax-exempt status would also face hurdles. The tax code prohibits the president, vice president and other senior officials from directing an Internal Revenue Service audit or investigation against any particular group. Revoking tax-exempt status can be a lengthy process with legal challenges. A separate tax code section permits the IRS to quickly suspend the tax-exempt status of groups designated as terrorist organizations.

Democrats are sounding the alarm that Trump is using Kirk’s killing to crack down on dissent. Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) warned of a “dizzying campaign to shut down political opposition groups and lock up or harass its leaders,” based on what he called lies about Democrats, and said the party needs to redouble mobilization efforts and fundraising.

Democrats have lacked a clear message since the election, and multiple polls have found that voters hold their lowest opinion of the party in decades. The Kirk shooting comes just as the party has found a unifying theme around the economy, affordability and healthcare, arguing that Trump had promised to lower the costs of everyday goods and services, but instead had raised them. Inflation in August returned to its highest level since the start of the year, the Labor Department said last week, and hiring stalled in August after the economy lost jobs in June, the department said.