Stepping Into Charlie Kirk’s America

There is a lot to reflect on after the tragic news yesterday. How did Charlie Kirk become one of the most effective political activists of the past generation? Why were the things he believed in and defended in front of thousands either so beloved or so hated? And what his killing says about the state of America.

I’ll start with my own experience. During the Black Lives Matter protests, in the middle of the lockdown summer, Americans were under assault by tyrannical government policies and tech corporations censoring speech en masse.

Speaking up was dangerous. In that climate, I started Upward News. One of the first big breaks I had was an article debunking the narrative of George Floyd’s death. As we all know now, he was saying he couldn’t breathe long before the famous knee on his neck, and his body contained lethal levels of drugs.

It was true — but not popular to say. Even most voices on the mainstream Right stayed silent. I was posting only anonymously while working a corporate job.

Charlie picked up the story and ran with it. He recorded a segment that went viral, fearlessly telling the truth about the hoax being pushed on the American people. He credited us — far more than he had to — and sent his audience to our newsletter before it really existed.

I was grateful. I reached out before Upward News was anything, he responded, and we talked over the years. He was always generous with his time and his platform. Just two weeks ago, he willingly lent his platform to help amplify our reporting on the progressive origins of Cracker Barrel’s rebranding.

The last time I spoke to him was right before the 2024 election, when he forged the alliance between Trump and RFK Jr. and hosted the rally that brought them together. A friend I brought along to meet Charlie, not especially political, turned to me afterward and asked, “Is he going to be president one day?” That was the feeling among those who knew him.

Politics attracts its share of cynical operators. Charlie was one of the rare few who wasn’t.

His mission mattered more to him than anything else. He built the largest student movement in the country at a time when progressive ideology dominated campuses. He believed the ideas America is built on — free markets, free speech, limited government, Judeo-Christian values — were worth fighting for. And by 31, he had become one of the most influential voices in the country, on the air, online, and behind the scenes.

He was always learning, adapting, and seeing clearly where the threats to America were. In the 2010s, when Bernie Sanders and AOC tried to mainstream socialism, Charlie’s Turning Point USA was one of the fiercest opponents. When the Black Lives Matter riots spread through the country, along with Antifa and left-wing violence, Charlie shifted his focus, recognizing that the danger was more radical than we realized.

And he did all this through dialogue. Clear, sharp, and — most importantly — empathetic dialogue. He sought to understand those who disagreed with him and explain his perspective without judgment.

Charlie Kirk was not the radical the media made him out to be. He was committed to being levelheaded and honest, even as he spoke out forcefully. In fact, many on the Right often had problems with Charlie being too balanced, too nuanced. Without him, the Right is weaker.

As a result, he had enemies, and more than most. He often acknowledged the danger of his political enemies — he knew they were violent.

But he pressed on. In his last years, he went from campus to campus, speaking to thousands, debating activists in the very heart of opposition. For conservative students, hearing him was enough to remind them that their ideas were not fringe and they weren’t alone.

And for liberals, his patient exchanges showed that the people they thought were villains were in fact decent Americans acting out of conviction and compassion.

His seemingly boundless energy shifted the course of the country. For Trump’s 2024 campaign, he rallied young voters and helped drive the effort for re-election. He fought for the truth about Israel when it was deeply unpopular, even alienating some on his side of the aisle. He spoke openly about faith, about God, about family — and he lived it, raising two children of his own.

Charlie was fearless and effective. He was reaching millions of people who needed to hear his voice. That is why he was assassinated — by the same forces he always knew were after him. For him, it was the cost of fighting for freedom and truth, the work to which he dedicated his life.

There is a reason political movements turn to violence. It paralyzes. It silences. It is meant to stop us from speaking freely, from believing in free speech, from practicing our religion, and from defending traditional values.

We are now living in a moment when America is saturated with political violence: multiple attempts to assassinate Donald Trump; pro-Israel staff executed in cold blood; Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, targeted and firebombed; a Minnesota state representative and her husband shot dead. Luigi Mangioni, despite killing an innocent man in cold blood, is a Leftist hero.

Most of this comes from fringe movements and radical actors who have been indoctrinated to see people like Charlie Kirk — ordinary Americans who stand for traditional values — as vile, evil actors. That kind of thinking doesn’t spread on its own. It takes political rhetoric, campus indoctrination, and above all, a media that fuels it.

Charlie recognized what Upward News is up against — the media and its role in stoking the country’s chaos — so he helped us. I’m forever grateful for that.

Above all, Charlie believed it was more important to fight for the truth than to live in fear while the country he loved was being destroyed.

The choice is ours: whether to cower or fight on. We’re choosing to step fully into Charlie Kirk’s America.