Turning Point members remember Charlie Kirk

Hello, everyone. My name is Mikey McCoy. I had the unique honor, blessing, and privilege of a lifetime to not only call Charlie a precious friend and mentor, but to travel with him literally everywhere. The first time I met Charlie was when I was driving him and his then-girlfriend, Erika, to the airport after he had spoken at my father's church. The entire car ride he was grilling me on Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, American history. At the end he said, "Don't go to college. Come work for me instead." At 18, I canceled my college plans, moved to Arizona. My life was forever changed by Charlie. All of us in this room have that in common. My first day working at Turning Point, I met an incredible girl who Charlie was interviewing on his podcast, sharing the story of her family who had survived the totalitarian regime, whose grandfather was imprisoned in the gulags for 10 years for preaching the gospel. Elizabeth and I were married a year later. Thank you Charlie. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] When Charlie would speak on college campuses, he'd often wear t-shirts with inspiring taglines like "Here I Am." "Never Surrender." "Freedom." But as I've watched back so many clips these past 11 days, my favorite, and so often worn by him, was "Live Free." 11 days ago, my friend was martyred for using his voice to engage in peaceful dialogue. Charlie's assassin thought that he could steal and silence his voice by putting a bullet in his neck. In the words of Soren Kierkegaard, "The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule has just begun." [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] Charlie was not silenced. His movement is only beginning. The voices of millions globally have been awakened, furthering his cause and mission far beyond anyone's comprehension. We won't cower in fear. We will never surrender. We are resolved to live free from lies and seek out what is true. We will respectfully, boldly challenge what is accepted by culture in order to seek out what is true and acceptable to God Almighty alone. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] To everyone here today, live free. True freedom is not found in doing whatever we want, but pursuing Christ and doing what is right. In Charlie's words, "Get married, have more children than you can afford. To build a legacy, pass down your values and pursue the eternal. Seek true joy." Charlie led by example. It's not only seen in the incredible wife, Erika Kirk, his two beautiful children. The legacy he built, his values, his love of God and true joy he found in his Savior, Jesus Christ, but in countless people, especially young people like Elizabeth and whose very lives are the fruit of Charlie's example of faithfulness. Charlie, it was the honor of my life to serve you as you serve Jesus. And now we will all continue to serve you as we continue to serve Jesus. Thank you so much. I love you, Charlie. I can't wait to see you again. God bless Erika Kirk, CEO and chair of Turning Point USA, the Kirk family, and God bless America. [APPLAUSE]

Oh, my goodness. Charlie's having some serious heavenly FOMO right now. Look at this. You have no idea how much Charlie Kirk wants a bullhorn down here right now. He always, he always said to me, if we could just figure out how to bring the Holy Spirit into a Trump rally, I think you've done it. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] My name is Tyler Bowyer. I was the CEO of Turning Point USA and now the CEO of Turning Point Action. You may know me from the Charlie Kirk Showor our weekly podcast, ThoughtCrimewith Charlie, Jack, Blake and Andrew. But I'm also the longest-tenured employee at Turning Point. I met my friend Charlie in 2014. We connected when Turning point USA was just in its infancy, sharing the vision for what the conservative movement should be. Charlie was just a kid then. I was a little older. We had a lot in common. I didn't like RINOs He didn't like RINOs I was the youngest guy at TEA Party meetings, he was the youngest guy at tea Party meetings. Charlie didn't go to college, I went to ASU, so I basically didn't go to college. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] You're welcome, Doctor Crowe. We went to work every day on a 24-hour clock. When Charlie turned 21, he didn't have a home. Turning Point USA was in his first year of raising real money. He was just a kid to me, but donors would ask him where he lived, and he took personal offense to the suggestion he still lived in his parents' basement, although his parents probably wanted him to be there all the time. He was a grown 21-year-old man, after all. He was rarely home in Chicago. He lived on a plane and zipped back and forth as Turning Point USA became his life. All his personal mail came to a little detached garage at 217 1/2 Illinois Street, or as Charlie would constantly remind you, like every good startup, Turning Point USA was founded. So anyways, we work 24/7. He would tell every supporter of ours, between me and him we were a team that was never off the clock. Full coverage. I would usually stay up till 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, working on the next big Turning Point USA project and text Charlie reports of what our team that day had accomplished. It was like this every day, work, report, and wait to see my text messages to Charlie flip from delivered to read as soon as he woke up on the East Coast so we can be firing away feedback, thoughts, and a flurry of brilliant Charlie Kirk ideas as soon as he opened his eyes. I'm not kidding you. This was every single day. All it takes is two dudes to dream up big stuff and talk each other in really insane ideas, which Charlie and I did often to one another. We would go back and forth with those ideas, perfecting them, turning into bigger, more insane and impactful things. And of course, expensive concepts. The ideas literally never stopped. It was around-the-clock problem-solution chat that worked to dream big for the conservative movement. Come up with new ideas, plan new things, fix all problems. My job was to turn them into proposals and presentations, and voila, we would work to execute. Charlie would take red eyes from coast to coast, going all over the country like a crazy man on any and every possible meeting with every possible donor who would take a meeting. So our ideas and fixes for the conservative movement could help young people once and for all. I oftentimes would go with him and marvel at the deranged 22-year-old lifestyle of bathing in airport bathrooms, eating full plates of vegetables and meat at 10:00 PM at night after a long day's work. He was the best at doing all of it. Our success gave me the job of a lifetime, and I'm grateful for it for the rest of my life. I got really good at recruiting the best young talent in the country to come work for us, and it was nonstop. We were a hell of a team. And that's how it worked. Turning Point USA was built and the Charlie Kirk vision was delivered. I had the special honor at Charlie and Erika's wedding to give a toast speech for Charlie, the groom. It was significantly less pressure than this room. An incredibly beautiful wedding, but small and important room of people. I can admittedly say I didn't think that I would have to give another Charlie Kirk speech this soon. At his wedding, I told the story of talking Charlie into moving to Arizona. He was an adamant Chicago boy, I needed to break that. Selfishly, I wanted him to love Arizona because I had recently convinced him to move to Turning Point USA to Arizona. It was a hard sell at first, and that was until I hosted the first Trump rally in Trump rally history right here in Arizona in 2015. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] I got a call-- I got a call from Miss Erika Kirk, Miss Arizona 2012. "I just want to help," she said. So naturally, I put her right behind the president at that first rally. After that, we talked. It was obvious she was the perfect person for the job that Charlie and I had devised in one of our 24-hour planning sessions. I wanted to hire her. I only had one problem. Charlie Kirk wanted to date her. Long story short, I was very worried he was going to scare her off and screw it up and I was going to lose this incredible prospect. Like all things he put his mind to. Charley accomplished everything he put his mind to. They immediately fell in love and I lost an employee. But now she's my boss. [LAUGHTER] I'm sure you've heard. [APPLAUSE] We love Erika Kirk. Over the years, we built a lot of things. The largest field operation, the conservative movement between high school and college, faith, and action. The first ever ballot-chasing operation that won the election for President Trump. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] The largest event in the conservative movement, most of which have been huge, but in convention centers. In 2021, in the aftermath of COVID, we weren't sure if society was ever going to bounce back and ever get back to normal. So we began planning what was one of the crazy ideas known as America Fest. I hope you'll all be there this year. We decided to move it to swing-state Arizona and hope and pray that this would work after the world shut down for so long. Charlie, like all our 24-7 ideas sessions texted me and our VP of events, Lauren Tossig, late at night and he showed us and said, "This is my vision." It was an image of a full stadium. A few seconds later, he sent these images of full stadiums of people hoping for that to be a future Turning Point event. Well, Charlie, my friend, I'm happy to report we're standing in your vision. You did it, buddy. We love you. You are sitting in the vision for Charlie Kirk. God bless. [APPLAUSE]

My name is Justin Streiff, and I'm the chief operating officer for Turning Point USA. Since September 10, my thoughts keep returning to one thing, and that's time. Charlie lived only 31 years. Yet when I reflect on those years, I see more impact and more courage and more achievement than most men accomplish in a lifetime. I've known Charlie for a decade, and I'd like to share a little of what I learned from him. Charlie often said that having courage is one of the easiest things in the world, because all it requires is you to say yes. Courage does not require talent. It does not require natural ability. Courage requires a personal decision. It's interesting that people often describe Charlie as completely fearless, but the truth is simpler and much more profound. Charlie simply refused to let fear stop him from carrying out God's will for him and his life. [APPLAUSE] His courage was a daily choice, a yes, no matter the cost. And it cost him his life. This truth forced me to reflect on what we can't control. Time. It's fleeting, it's fragile, and it's sacred. Charlie knew this better than anyone else. He didn't waste time. He lived every moment with conviction. He lived as a man of character and truth and courage. And he taught us not just through words, but through actions. Charlie was the same person in private as he was in public. And that's why we trusted him. That's why we loved him. That's why we all feel this loss so deeply. His honesty, his compassion, and his insistence on truth drew people in, even those who disagreed with them. Charlie stirred patriotism in us, but more deeply, he stirred our hunger to live united under God. He told us to stop and think, to use common sense to grow up and pitch in. He asked us to hear the words that God wrote on our hearts, "I am the Lord your God, and you shall have no other gods before me." This is not a message of comfort or safety or peace. It's a message of love. A love of God's will. Charlie's life was anchored by that love. Every day he left his home, the comfort of it, his wife, his children, to face criticism and threats and angry mobs and ultimately death. He loved God more than he loved safety or applause or even his own life. That's because the last 31 years weren't his career. They were his calling. Charlie's legacy is this. He showed us how to be better people. He gave voice to truth, and he followed God's will. He started with nothing more than an idea and a folding table. And over 13 years, with time and courage and faith, he built a movement that changed the world. Now that Charlie's gone, what happens next? It's up to us. Time is fleeting, but the decisions we make here right now are eternal. So let us honor Charlie by doing what he did. Stand for truth, confront evil, live courageously. And we do it the way that Charlie did. With compassion, but never compromising on truth, demanding the best from ourselves, from each other, and from our country. Charlie reminded us that courage requires only a yes. And he said yes every single day. And now it's our turn. It's our turn to say yes. To speak boldly, to speak honestly to fight for our families, to love our country, to honor God, and to wisely use the time that we've been given. And it's to do for the next generation what Charlie did for us. Because all of this right here and right now is our turning point. We love you, Charlie. And we won't let you down. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

My name is Stacy Sheridan. Eight years ago, I met Charlie in a crowded ballroom in West Palm Beach at a David Horowitz Freedom Center event. We spoke briefly, we exchanged cards, and I thought nothing of it. What ultimately made me want to join Charlie's cause and Charlie's team, because he began a quest to hire me after meeting me, I was reluctant at first, but it was his naive audaciousness to change the world that ultimately sold me. It was the best decision I've ever made and I've never looked back. Yes, technically Charlie was my boss, but it really never felt that way. Far more than my boss, I felt like he was my little brother. So the guys that went before me spoke about him as a boss and a leader. I'm going to speak about him from my heart, as a family member. In 2022, my husband Mike became sick with cancer. Two years later, that cancer took his life. Throughout those two years, Charlie called me consistently to ask how he could help us. At one point, he had critical medication and an oxygen machine sent to my doorstep without my knowledge. I still to this day have no idea how he made that happen, but that was Charlie. He did the right thing. There was no limit to how far he'd go to help a friend. He wasn't looking for publicity or credit. He did it because that's what a leader does. That's what a friend does. And that's what a Christian is supposed to do. Sometimes I would express guilt to Charlie that I couldn't do my job at 100% Charlie's response every single time was family first. When Mike ultimately passed away, Charlie and the entire team were there for us yet again. They helped my daughter Grace through the unbearable tragedy of losing her father on her ninth birthday. But Charlie's help didn't stop there. This January, I lost my home in the Pacific Palisades fire. Charlie's response was very clear and very direct. "This is a sign you and Grace belong in Arizona now." Within a few months, we moved here, and Charlie and Erika welcomed us into their family while enduring our various tragedies. My daughter Grace would ask me at least once a day, why would God do this to us, Mom? My honest and only answer was, someday we will look at each other and instantly know why all of this had to happen. And it will be for something far greater than we can ever imagine. In my first conversation with Grace after Charlie's death, Grace said to me through tears over the phone, "Mom, this is the answer to my question. This is our why. Now we can be there for Erika and Gigi and Mack the way they were there for us." [APPLAUSE] Looking back today, it's so clear to me that Grace was right. I know for certain that my late husband, Mike, Charlie, and God were guiding us here for this very moment in time. It was always written. Erika, Grace and I will support you and your babies the way you and Charlie were there for us in our darkest days. Charlie, we will miss your words of wisdom, your high-pitched laugh that was kind of awkward and the way your voice would always soften when you spoke to Erika and your children. And I promise we're going to make TPUSA so big that it reaches you in heaven. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] Everything Charlie prayed for in his life, a restoration of faith, a rebirth of patriotism is coming to fruition in his death. And right now, he is beaming at us from heaven. The fact that we pulled this off in seven days is a miracle that only Charlie Kirk can deliver, by the way. So Charlie's words, let's get to work, everybody. We have a country to save. Thank you.