The anguish and anger over Charlie Kirk’s assasination last week has galvanized young conservatives, tens of thousands of whom are pledging to become politically active and carry on Kirk’s message.
Republican campaigns are ready to welcome them with open arms.
Strategists say they are preparing for a surge of support among young conservatives ahead of next year’s midterm elections; support they hope can help win votes at the ballot box. For a party worried about turning out voters in 2026, enthusiasm from this group could become a major asset — and help Republicans overcome the political doldrums that traditionally afflict the sitting president’s party in midterms.
“What Charlie started was a massive movement — clearly helped President Trump in a big way, probably more than anybody else with the youth vote in 2024,” said Joe Mitchell, founder of Run GenZ, a group that encourages young conservatives to run for elected office. “And after him being assassinated, that’s going to grow tenfold from a voter-participation standpoint.”
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Republicans like Mitchell — who is also running for Congress in Iowa — say they’ve already seen increased engagement in the days since Kirk’s death in the form of both financial donations and volunteer sign-ups. And they’re vowing to find more ways to tap into it over the coming months, eager to find respectful but effective ways to persuade young conservatives to join their campaigns.
Kirk’s supporters — and those moved by his death — have a chance, strategists say, to play a big role in next year’s races.
“We’re committed to earning every vote and continuing Charlie Kirk’s movement that has inspired a new generation of conservatives,” said Mike Marinella, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Marinella and other Republican strategists said they hoped that Kirk’s followers could help the party match President Donald Trump’s levels of support among young people in 2024, when then-candidate Trump won over young voters at an unusually high rate.
Party strategists have been nervous they won’t be able to replicate that success in 2026, in part because many of the young people who voted for Trump might not turn out to vote for a Republican congressional candidate without Trump on the ballot. Republican campaigns are largely being built this election cycle with the goal of turning out Trump’s former voters, but are well aware that many of them are not inclined to participate in a midterm election.
But the strategists said even well-funded voter outreach efforts could ultimately do less to turn out Trump’s former supporters than the galvanizing effect Kirk’s death had on many of his fans.
“I think this young base of voters, they’re grieving but they’re also pissed off,” said Chris Pack, a Republican strategist. “And I do think this will carry over to the next election.”
Kirk’s assasination in Utah, at an event hosted by the group he founded, Turning Point USA, has triggered a volatile nationwide debate in the last week about politically motivated violence and the culpability of political parties that use increasingly incendiary rhetoric about their opponents.
Republicans have said the way that Democrats and the liberal left talk about the GOP inspired Kirk’s murder; Democrats have denied responsibility and countered that Republicans are now using that concern as a pretense to silence speech they don’t like.
The effect Kirk’s death will have on the midterms, which will be held in over 13 months, is decidedly less clear, especially in a chaotic political environment where even major events can have little effect on voters. Democrats have said repeatedly that they expect cost-of-living issues and the perception that congressional Republicans are too deferential to Trump will be the most important issues of 2026.
But Republicans say they’ve already seen some effect on their operations in the last week. Turning Point USA, for instance, said Tuesday that it had already received 54,000 requests from high school or college students seeking to start a chapter or join an existing one in their school.
Republican campaigns have also seen a “big jump” in volunteer sign-ups and small-dollar donations, according to Mark Harris, a Republican strategist who works for Virginia GOP gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears and other Republican campaigns.
“The initial indication is that there is some real political movement beneath the surface,” Harris said.
Trump led Republicans to a much stronger showing with younger voters in 2024 than the GOP had seen in years: He did 7 percentage points better with voters ages 29 and younger than he did in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center, winning 39% of an age cohort that has long leaned left.
Another post-election assessment, from the Democratic data firm Catalist, found Trump winning 44% of voters ages 18 to 29 and earning 50% of the vote among young white voters.
Trying to earn a similar level of support next year won’t be easy, Republican strategists say, but it’s likely more doable now than it was before
“It’s always a hurdle that has to be overcome,” Pack said. “But when you have icons in the Republican Party being assassinated, it will keep the young Republican base motivated. Because the Democrats are not changing course, they’re still calling us fascists, they’re still calling us racists, they’re not turning down the rhetoric.”
Republicans like Pack stressed that GOP campaigns will need to be sensitive about approaching many of Kirk’s followers to join their efforts, careful not to treat a broader political movement like just a tool for campaigns to use in the next election.
But they said candidates nonetheless should try their best to engage with Republican voters on college campuses and incorporate messages that appeal to their views.
“Candidates for office should not be shy about speaking to young Republican groups, college Republican groups, even go on campuses themselves,” Pack said. “Because there definitely seems to be a movement now of young adults who are sick of being taken for granted by Democrats, and they’re open to voting Republican now.”
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