The tickets weren’t selling. Charlie Kirk was one of the hottest political acts Flathead County Republicans could have booked for a fundraiser ahead of the consequential 2020 election, but the show was in mid-March as Montana events were being canceled because of COVID-19’s arrival in the state.
The organizers asked Kirk if he could use his notable social media reach to assure everyone he was still coming. Kirk, leader of the sizable conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, obliged with a video.
“I can’t wait to be with you guys in one of my favorite states, if not my favorite state,” Kirk told followers just days before the March 14 event. “We got to get the president reelected and do everything we can. I’ll be traveling across the country to meet you guys. So, get your tickets.”
The event sold out, at about 600 tickets. Republicans showed their gratitude to Kirk by flying him to Kalispell on a private jet and putting him up at the Whitefish home of a wealthy donor.
News of Kirk’s assassination Wednesday at a Utah university hit his community of followers in Montana and across the country hard. They didn’t just like the 31-year-old conservative firebrand from the Chicago suburbs, they’ve been invested in Kirk’s vision for years. Kirk was scheduled to return to Montana State University in Bozeman on Oct. 7 as part of a multi-state college tour.
“He first showed up in Kalispell, when he was 17,” said Al Olszewski, a former state legislator and current chair of the Flathead County Republican Central Committee. At that visit in either 2012 or 2013, according to attendees, Kirk laid out his vision for Turning Point: to help young conservative voters “meaningfully engage in their communities to restore traditional American values like patriotism, respect for life, liberty, family and fiscal responsibility.”
Olszewski invested several thousand dollars in Kirk’s vision. Others at the encounter in the basement meeting room at Sykes Diner gave more, Olszewski said Wednesday. Turning Point was created in 2013. By mid-2024, those early donations had been eclipsed by Turning Point’s annual revenue of $84.9 million.
“If he met you once, he remembered your name,” Olszewski said. Kirk reached young voters easily, at events he would sit in a folding chair with a banner overhead that read “prove me wrong” and take audience questions from liberal students with whom he didn’t agree
“I’m very sad about this shooting, really. I’m in shock,” said state Rep. Lyn Bennett, R-Columbia Falls, who was at the first Kirk meeting more than a decade ago. “I don’t think he did anything that justifies that kind of violence, even if he has an opinion that disagrees with another person’s opinion. I think we all should be able to be civil and have differing opinions and agree to disagree and still get along.”
Bennett recalled there being several teens at the first meetup, at which Kirk gave a presentation. She had no idea how the young attendees knew who Kirk was, but they did. Kids with conservative viewpoints sometimes don’t feel comfortable sharing their opinions around peers, Bennett said Thursday, or teachers who they feared might give them a lower grade on a book report if they disagree with the student’s argument. Kirk’s approach was to sharpen a message and deliver it calmly.
Kirk on the college campus circuit would defend the qualifications of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, or the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education. He was adamantly against the mention of LGBTQ subjects in classrooms. He said young women needed to focus on motherhood, not careers. He didn’t change opponents’ minds, but he didn’t shout them down. He always had a comeback and a subtle way of pointing where Kirk and his opponent almost agreed. He was opposed to gun control. The NRA both sponsored and participated in Turning Point events.
He was a provocateur, for example suggesting that Biden winning fewer counties than Trump in 2020 was relevant to the number of votes Biden won, a claim debunked by FactCheck. Kirk didn’t just oppose medical treatments for the transgender youth, he created events to bring like-minded followers along, like Turning Point’s “Teens Against Gender Mutilation” rally in Tennessee in 2023.
Montana state Rep. Braxton Mitchell, a Flathead Republican, got on Kirk’s radar as a teenager in 2018 following a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Students at some high schools were staging walkouts to demand an end to gun violence. Mitchell organized a walkout in support of gun rights.
“I got my buddies to do a pro-gun walkout at our school, but honor the victims of the school shooting,” Mitchell said in an interview Wednesday. “Charlie had heard about it, or found out about it from somebody else, and I ended up getting an invite to Mar-a-Lago,” President Trump’s Florida resort, where Mitchell met Kirk.
Mitchell, 25, became an official ambassador for Turning Point in 2019. He attends its twice-a-year events at the Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix.
“Charlie was, was the one that actually had the courage for actually going on these campuses and quite literally started a movement,” Mitchell said. “Tell me any other political figure you know who is going to attract 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 kids out there today, six, seven or eight months after an election. No one cares about politics at that age. The election is over, but there’s something about the guy. Going to Turning Point events for me, as an 18- or 19-year-old kid, was funner than going to concerts.”
Kirk’s known public events in Montana are fewer than four. The Kalispell event in 2020 was preceded by a 2019 event at Montana State University in Bozeman. Kirk appeared at the University of Montana in September 2024 for a “Save Big Sky Rally,” featuring a sit-down conversation between Kirk and then-candidate Tim Sheehy, who was challenging former incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. Sheehy went on to win that election. Mitchell said Kirk had been to Montana for several private events. Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte shared a photo Wednesday of himself posing with Kirk, who was a guest at Gianforte fundraiser.
Sheehy, on X, tweeted that “Charlie was a good man and a patriot who fought tirelessly to make our country better.”
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican, said on X that “Charlie Kirk was a friend, a loving husband, a father and fearless leader who inspired the next generation.” Daines had participated in Kirk’s 2019 event at Montana State University.
Gianforte posted that he had “known Charlie since he was a teenager. He dedicated his life to supporting the next generation of leaders and getting young people involved in government.”
Mitchell couldn’t think of someone who could replace Kirk, but said he was still planning to attend a Turning Point event in Phoenix later this year, certain the organization would continue without its founder.
“The guy was a book of knowledge, not just on politics, but his faith also,” Mitchell said. “It’s hard to find people that are as dedicated as that guy was. I know there will be somebody. I’m sure what happened today is going to motivate a lot of people, especially young kids to follow in his footsteps and do what Charlie did.”
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