Less than a week after her husband died in the highest-profile political assassination of a generation, Erika Kirk called a virtual meeting through Zoom with the 1,500 employees of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the organization Charlie Kirk led to her death.
During the meeting, he assured attendees that they will not lose their jobs and that “everything is stable and safe,” Alex Clark, host of one of TPUSA’s most popular podcasts, told CNN. Clark explained that the message was clear: Erika Kirk claimed that she would continue Charlie’s mission as he had planned.
This meeting was interpreted as a sign that Erika intends to lead TPUSA, according to Clark.
On Thursday, the organization announced that Erika will be the new executive director and chairman of the council, thus fulfilling her late husband’s wish.
“I think he will do everything he can to protect Charlie’s legacy,” Clark told CNN. “And I’m sure all employees want her to be in charge of the organization.”
Nearly a week earlier, in her first public speech two days after the murder, Erika Kirk issued a warning and a promise.
“They have no idea the fire they’ve lit in me,” he said Friday. “The weeping of this widow will resound all over the world like a rallying cry.”
“I will make Turning Point the biggest thing this country has ever seen,” he said. “The movement will not die. I refuse to let that happen.”
Even before Kirk’s death, Erika was considered a driving force for young conservative women, who she intended to prioritize marriage and motherhood over career, even while she had her own business.
“I wouldn’t want anyone besides her to take over Turning Point,” said Faith Merrill, 19, who has been involved in TPUSA for the past three years. “She is simply a maternal figure for us. Charlie was the father figure, and she is the maternal figure for us.”
For Merrill, Erika Kirk “just woke up something in the conservatives of Generation Z, and I can safely say that it will make Turning Point thrive and grow more than ever.”
Next Sunday, Erika Kirk will appear again in public, this time in tribute to her husband, where she will be one of the speakers of a group that includes President Donald Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance.
His tone and message will be closely followed, both by a divided nation over Charlie Kirk’s legacy and by followers of a movement in which he has already played an important, if often contradictory, role.
Who is Erika Kirk?
Erika Frantzve was raised by her mother in Scottsdale, Arizona, after her parents divorced when she was young.
He studied political science at the university and played basketball for a time in the NCAA. “I’ve played basketball since I was five, I was very unfeminine, and I didn’t like dresses,” she once said.
She was subsequently crowned Miss Arizona USA in 2012. In the presentation videos of the contest, he recognized that, in some respects, its development was late.
“I think I always had that female girl hiding inside me,” she said in her presentation video.
Six years later, she met Charlie Kirk, who was five years her junior in New York City, long after he founded Turning Point USA. Both have often told the story of her origins: initially, he contacted her by direct message on Instagram and asked her to meet her after attending a TPUSA event with a family member.
Her meeting at “Bob’s Burgers” in Manhattan in 2018 was initially a job interview, both have said, and he shot with her questions.
But he changed course quickly. “I’m not going to hire you, I’m going out with you,” recalls Erika, who told him during a speech at a TPUSA event.
They got engaged in 2020 and married the following year. They have two children: a one-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl.
Although she did not have a public record of conservative activism before meeting Kirk, her late husband has said she comes from a “far-right family.”
Erika has said that her grandfather, a Swedish immigrant who served in two wars, “was always far-right” and that she became “100 percent more conservative” after being a mother, “something she didn’t think possible.”
As Kirk’s wife, she has shared much about these personal ideals, closely linked to conservative Christian values, on her social media and in public appearances with him: faith, marriage, and motherhood, in that order of importance.
When talking about her role in the relationship with her husband, she has often used a provocative word: submission.
“I love submitting to Charlie because he’s a phenomenal leader,” he said. “I want him to come home and love him very much. Let it be renewed.”
In their public appearances, they have spoken openly about fulfilling the biblical role and the marriage covenant: Charlie takes care of finances, making money for the family, while she focuses on raising her children, cooking, and keeping house, an option that encourages other young people to follow.
“As a woman, you’re meant to be the guardian of your home, your husband’s best help,” she told the audience at the Bloom conference, a Christian event. “Be that biblical wife that you must be for him and honor the order God created for marriage.”
“When I met Charlie, that was it; I couldn’t care less about the race,” she said last year at Turning Point’s Young Women’s Leadership Summit.
Merrill, who claims to have lacked self-confidence on occasion, joined the TP USA community thanks to her mother.
Listening to Erika Kirk woke up something in her and her friends, Merrill said, and has engaged them in the conservative movement.
“It’s people like Erica Kirk who transform these shy girls, these girls who have no idea what they want to do, people like her.”
“I think if it continues like this, Generation Z will become extremely conservative and we will stop apologizing for things we don’t have to apologize for,” Merrill said.
Cultural contradictions
Despite all her emphasis on the role of women in the home, Erika Kirk has many projects outside of her home.
In addition to being a public figure with her husband — half of a society that promotes traditional marriage — she has a devotional podcast and a Christian clothing company, Proclaim Streetwear, for which Charlie Kirk was a model. He claims to have completed a doctorate in biblical studies and to have founded a non-profit organization.
She has spoken proudly about female entrepreneurship, but at the same time has criticized the “culture of the boss” as “toxic” and “antithetical to the Gospel.”
He has also claimed many times that starting a family is far more important to a woman than anything else.
However, within TPUSA, there was a big push for Erika Kirk to take over as executive director, according to Clark, who told CNN that she sees an opportunity for Erika to operate behind the scenes in the organization.
“I think it is very important that whoever knew Charlie better than anyone in this world has a say in the next decisions, in the direction that the company takes, in the different objectives that are established, and in the projects we decide to undertake,” he said.
What happens now could be defined by Erika Kirk, with whom CNN has failed to get in touch. In the past, she had chosen to show a softer image to counter that of her frank and sometimes fiery husband.
Days before Charlie Kirk’s passing, Turning Point USA announced a change in its maternity leave policy, extending paid leave for mothers to six months. Clark said that while the initiative came from Charlie, he perceived that the change was likely inspired by his family.
As for the college debates for which Charlie Kirk was known, Clark believes these will be left to other people besides Erika Kirk.
Her leadership ability became apparent just 48 hours after her husband’s death.
In her speech last week, she urged young people who were inspired by her husband’s faith to “join and participate in TPUSA.”
“If there is no section, or they don’t find it, then they create one. There is no excuse,” he said.
In the first 48 hours after his call, Turning Point received more than 32,000 applications to create new sections on campus, according to his spokesman, Andrew Kolvet, who added: “To put it into perspective, TPUSA currently has 900 official university sections and around 1,200 sections of high schools, with a total presence of 3,500.”
By midweek, the figure was 54,000 applications.
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