'Captured the youth': How Charlie Kirk helped fuel Donald Trump's return to the White House

Charlie Kirk remembered as 'one of the great patriots' of the century

Fox News contributor Joe Concha reflects on Charlie Kirk's impact on the conservative movement.

It's no overstatement to say that Charlie Kirk's powerful reach and influence among conservatives helped put President Donald Trump back in the White House.

Kirk, the MAGA world rock star and ally of Trump and the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., turned the extremely influential Turning Point USA youth organization that he co-founded at age 18 into a voter turnout machine for Trump in last year's presidential election.

"His mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody ever," the president said of his close friend and ally, in a video posted to social media hours after Kirk was assassinated on Wednesday.

Vice President JD Vance, who was also very close to Kirk, highlighted his friend's efforts in the 2024 campaign and in advising the Trump-Vance administration this year.

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Charlie Kirk and JD Vance greet supporters at the end of a campaign rally on May 1, 2022, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (Drew Angerer)

"He didn't just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government," Vance wrote in a statement on social media.

Turning Point Action, the political arm of Kirk's conservative youth organization, was instrumental in boosting younger voter turnout for Trump in last year's White House race.

"Charlie was such an amazing guy. He really captured the youth, the imagination of the youth," the president told Fox News' chief political anchor Bret Baier in a conversation on Wednesday. "He really convinced millions and millions of young people that MAGA was the way to go."

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Kirk, who grew up in suburban Chicago, got his start in politics while in high school as a volunteer in the 2010 campaign of former Republican Sen. Mark Kirk (no relation) of Illinois.

In the 13 years since he co-founded Turning Point USA, he turned it into one of the most prominent and influential conservative groups in the nation.

Turning Point Action dished out millions of dollars into get-out-the-vote efforts in the key presidential battleground states that Trump ended up sweeping in his 2024 victory over then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who last summer replaced then-President Joe Biden as the Democrats' national nominee.

Charlie Kirk greets President Donald Trump during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, July 23, 2019. (Chris Kleponis/Pool via Bloomberg)

And Turning Point's "Chase the Vote" initiative, where staffers built bonds with low propensity voters during the 2024 cycle, helped bank votes by ensuring those people would cast ballots in the presidential election.

Turning Point also helped run the Trump team's grassroots organizing and canvassing efforts, following a decision last year by federal election regulators that allowed candidates' campaigns to work directly with outside political groups.

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"This is one where the statistics don't lie. There were seven battleground states and in six of the seven, there were dramatic gains among younger voters," longtime Republican strategist John Brabender told Fox News. "It would be hard-pressed for anyone to not understand that Charlie Kirk was a major reason that happened."

Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks during a campaign rally for then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at Desert Diamond Arena on August 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona  (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

Brabender, who served as a media consultant for Trump's 2024 campaign, said "You could easily make the argument that Charlie Kirk had not only an important effort for the election but ultimately the effort that put President Trump over the top."

A Democratic strategist who served on the Biden and Harris campaigns, pointed to Kirk's large following and acknowledged that his efforts helped boost crucial youth turnout for Trump.

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And Democrats tried to emulate Kirk's efforts with Dream for America, a grassroots youth organization founded two years ago.

The group, on their website, describes their mission as "building a Turning Point USA for the left."

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast."