The Radicals Better Brace Themselves for Erika Kirk

The Turning Point USA Board announced Thursday the election of Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, as the organization’s new CEO and Chair of the Board.

“It was the honor of our lives to serve as board members at Charlie’s side,” read the statement. “Charlie prepared all of us for a moment like this one. He worked tirelessly to ensure Turning Point USA was built to survive even the greatest tests.”

They added, “The attempt to destroy Charlie’s work will become our chance to make it more powerful and enduring than ever before.”

In a trending social media clip from one of Erika’s appearances on Charlie’s radio show, an audience member asks: “Who is more conservative? Erika or Charlie?”

Charlie responded, “Erika. It’s not even close. I am a moderate compared to Erika.”

Erika replied, “[Producer] Andrew [Kolvet] always jokes that when you got married to me you got more based.”

Charlie agreed, and then asks, “Do think having kids made you more conservative?”

“One hundred percent,” answered Erika. “Which I didn’t even think was possible. 100%. And a better wife.”

Erika has been hosting a podcast called, “Midweek Rise Up.” It’s Christ centered program that’s designed “to provide you that deep breath of, ‘God’s got this.’” According to the show’s website, it’s “Biblical leadership to challenge you, and God-breathed Scripture to posture your heart for the best that’s yet to come.”

When a spouse is so tragically taken as happened to Erika, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to imagine a thriving life without your beloved by your side. But in the days following Charlie’s murder, Erika has bravely and courageously pledged to carry on her husband’s mission and legacy.

Charlie and Erika met in 2018, were engaged in December of 2020, and married in May of 2021.

Studies have consistently confirmed what the Kirks talked about on the podcast: Marriage tends to make individuals more conservative – and having children will make already conservative women and men even more conservative.

Writing on Thursday for the Institute of Family Studies, Scott Yenor and Lyman Stone note that conservative women born between 1975 and 1979 have a completed family size of 2.1 while moderate women have a family size of 1.8. Liberal women? 1.5.

Yet, the current birth dearth is negatively and proportionately impacting even conservative women. According to available data, conservative women born between 1995 and 1999 are averaging (so far) 0.7 children – the same as moderates. Liberals are at 0.4.

They also note:

Married women have substantially more children than unmarried women, and conservative women are much more likely to be married at every age. Over three-quarters of conservative women born before 1985 are married. Only about two-thirds of liberal women born before 1985 are married. On marriage, moderates resemble liberals more than they do conservatives. Trends suggest that marriage rates among liberal women will be increasingly different from conservative women in the future. 

In their four years of marriage, Charlie and Erika Kirk modeled the tremendous good that can come when a committed husband and wife, who love the Lord, individually and collectively, pour themselves into a mission well beyond themselves.

Erika Kirk represents the very best of a rising generation. Mothers’ voices have always mattered, but now more than ever. A strong woman of faith with courage and conviction, she is fiercely committed to her Lord, her children, and her country. That tremendous trifecta bodes well for the future of Turning Point USA and all those who are joining in the effort “to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.”

The radical agitators may have thought Charlie Kirk was silenced. They may have thought the battle to wrestle American youth back from the brink was lost.

They thought wrong.

“We will not surrender or kneel before evil,” stated the TPUSA board. “We will carry on.”

May the Lord bless, comfort and sustain Erika Kirk in the days, weeks, months and years to come.

Image from TPUSA