Reading Time: 3 minutes
Shortly after Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during a speaking engagement at a Utah university, his widow, Erika Kirk, vowed to carry on his mission.
Now, the mother of two has taken a major step toward that goal by assuming leadership of Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization.
The move comes amid a growing battle over Kirk’s legacy and an increasingly tense debate over the proper way to discuss his controversial views.
Erika Kirk vows to carry on late husband’s legacy
“We will not surrender or kneel before evil,” Turning Point board members said in a statement Thursday (via CNN). “We will carry on.”
A former Miss Arizona and college basketball player with a degree in political science, Erika has worked as a podcast host and ministry leader in recent years.
She and Charlie met and got engaged in 2020. They married the following year and welcomed two children.
Erika memorably spoke out last week, just two days after her husband was killed.
“To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die,” Kirk said on Sept. 12.
“My husband’s mission will not end, not even for a moment,” she added, before vowing to continue the American Comeback Tour of college campuses.
Erika’s views present a stark contrast to those presented moments ago by Rep. Alezanda Ocasion Cortez.
“His rhetoric and beliefs were ignorant, uneducated, and sought to disenfranchise millions of Americans,” Cortez said on the House floor today while opposing a resolution “honoring the life and legacy” of Charlie Kirk.
Ideological tensions escalate in wake of Kirk assassination
News of Erika’s appointment as CEO comes at the end of a tense week in the worlds of media and politics.
On Wednesday, late night host Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly pressured the network and its affiliate owners to muzzle the comedian.
The move has been widely criticized, but thus far, ABC has not announced any intention to bring Kimmel back to the air.
For some, the move is the most glaring example yet of the Trump administration capitalizing on the grief and outrage surrounding Kirk’s death in order to silence critics and amass power.
But supporters of the move maintain that Kimmel’s joke about Trump’s reaction to the shooting amounted to a pernicious lie, and the government acted in the people’s best interest in having the comic taken off the airwaves.
Whatever your stance, the past week confirmed that the cultural tensions of the past ten years will not be resolved anytime soon.