Turning Point USA, the conservative youth movement that has become a fixture on college campuses nationwide, is pressing forward with a reinvigorated national tour just days after the assassination of its founder, Charlie Kirk. On Monday night, September 22, 2025, more than 2,000 students packed into an auditorium at the University of Minnesota for the first event of what is now called the "Turning Point Tour," marking a strikingly swift return to activism following Kirk’s death earlier this month in Utah.
The organization’s determination to keep Kirk’s vision alive was unmistakable. According to CNN, a slate of high-profile conservative speakers—including Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, Utah Senator Mike Lee, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, Ohio gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy, and media personalities Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Glenn Beck—have signed on to headline events across 11 campuses over the next two months. The tour preserves seven stops originally planned before Kirk’s death and adds four more in Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama, and California.
The emotional charge fueling the tour was on full display just one day prior, when an estimated 200,000 mourners filled State Farm Stadium, the nearby NHL Coyotes arena, and the surrounding streets in Phoenix, Arizona, for Kirk’s memorial service. According to TNND, the memorial was not only a tribute but a call to action: Turning Point set up voter registration tables at the event, part of a push to build momentum ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The service was streamed to millions, with over 20 million viewers tuning in, as reported by local media.
At the heart of this transition is Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, who has stepped into the dual role of CEO and chair of Turning Point USA. Speaking at the memorial, Erika Kirk vowed to continue her late husband’s mission with renewed vigor. "His passion was my passion and now his mission is my mission," she declared, as reported by CNN. "Everything that Turning Point USA built through Charlie’s vision and hard work, we will make 10 times greater through the power of his memory." She also called on young people to be "pointed away from the path of misery and sin," emphasizing a moral and spiritual dimension to the movement’s work.
The organization’s resolve appears to be resonating. Since Kirk’s assassination, Turning Point USA has received more than $6 million in donations and 54,000 requests to establish new chapters nationwide, according to TNND. Erika Kirk wasted no time in mobilizing support, sending a fundraising email just hours after the memorial, urging supporters to "carry the torch" her husband lit and keep the movement advancing.
Yet, questions linger about what the movement will look like without its charismatic founder. As Slate observed, Kirk was a rare figure able to bridge divides within the right, appealing to disparate conservative factions with his straightforward style and commitment to civil debate. The first post-Kirk tour event at the University of Minnesota provided a glimpse into this uncertain future.
The evening’s keynote speaker, Michael Knowles—a traditionalist Roman Catholic and Daily Wire host—brought a markedly different energy to the stage. Knowles, known for his erudition and unapologetic traditionalism, did not dwell on Kirk’s legacy for long. Instead, he called on students to honor Kirk by attending church and living out their Christian faith. "Christian forgiveness does not demand we allow the cruel to ravage the whole earth; it demands we love our enemies," Knowles told the crowd. "In politics, love usually means punishing the guilty, both for the protection of the innocent as well as for the good of the criminals."
This rhetoric set a more militant tone, with Knowles urging the conservative movement to act decisively and "refortify the marketplace of ideas." As he put it, "We had a marketplace of ideas. The left shot it up. If we wish to restore the healthy exchange of ideas, we need to refortify the marketplace. Marketplaces of all kinds require rules, confidence, and common medium of exchange. They require, in other words, order." Knowles’s language, as noted by Slate, leaned heavily on themes of order and authority, suggesting a shift toward a more muscular, even authoritarian, version of conservatism in the wake of Kirk’s death.
The event was not without controversy. During the Q&A, Knowles fielded a question from a student who blamed women’s suffrage for the country’s woes. Rather than outright rejecting the premise, Knowles responded with a series of jokes: "I try not to blame women on their own. Men need to lead women in their homes." He continued, "To the people who want to repeal the 19th Amendment, we can take the vote away from the single women who vote for Democrats, and then we can give two votes to the married women who vote for Republicans. Is that a deal?" While Knowles stopped short of endorsing a repeal of women’s voting rights, his comments—along with advice to another student to "throw out feminism"—highlighted the event’s embrace of traditional gender roles and drew attention to the movement’s rightward shift.
Knowles also acknowledged the movement’s looming identity crisis. "Charlie was the unifying figure for the movement," he said, noting that Kirk did more to unite the conservative youth than even Donald Trump. "The immediate future is going to be a unity for Charlie. For Erika. To keep TPUSA going. To make sure this mission does not die. In the longer run, there will be various factions fighting for power."
Indeed, the power vacuum left by Kirk’s assassination has set off a scramble among different conservative factions to claim his mantle. Vice President J.D. Vance, another traditionalist Catholic and a former friend of Kirk’s, is widely seen as a leading contender to shape the movement’s future. Vance, who hosted Kirk’s podcast in the days after his death, shares Knowles’s ambitions to use the tragedy to galvanize the youth and pursue a more confrontational political strategy. As Knowles put it, "There must be consequences to heal this national trauma and to reestablish a healthy politics. Those consequences require clarity of vision, courage of our convictions, and an extraordinary amount of God’s grace."
As the tour continues, the lineup of speakers reflects both continuity and change. According to the Herald-Times, Tucker Carlson is set to speak at Indiana University in October, with the event already sold out for students. Other stops will feature Erika Kirk, Megyn Kelly, and a host of Republican governors and congressmen. Each event, according to TPUSA’s website, is "a chance to honor Charlie’s mission and keep the fight alive. We know he wouldn’t want us to surrender or be coerced into silence. Free speech is only free if we use our voices."
With the fall tour rolling on to campuses from Virginia Tech to Indiana University and beyond, Turning Point USA is at a crossroads. The movement’s future—its ideological direction, its leadership, and its ability to unite a fractious right—remains uncertain. But if the packed auditoriums, surging donations, and high-profile speakers are any indication, the fight to define the next chapter of conservative youth politics is only just beginning.
For now, Turning Point’s mission endures—transformed by tragedy, but propelled by a sense of urgency and, for many, a conviction that the stakes have never been higher.
