After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination, TPUSA Faces Its Biggest Test Yet

PHOENIX, Az — Turning Point USA (TPUSA) held its annual AmericaFest conference this past weekend in downtown Phoenix, drawing thousands of conservative activists, donors and elected officials at a moment when the organization is recalibrating for what comes next.

Following the assassination of founder Charlie Kirk, interviews conducted by the Daily Caller News Foundation with TPUSA leadership and longtime donors suggest the organization is placing greater emphasis on carrying forward Kirk’s existing vision. At the same time, TPUSA leaders and donors described preparations for a difficult 2026 midterm cycle and early planning for the 2028 presidential election. Those conversations pointed less to a redefinition of the organization and more to whether the infrastructure and momentum Kirk built can be sustained under increased pressure and scrutiny.

CONTINUITY OVER REINVENTION 

Andrew Kolvet, who has served as executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show since 2019 and stepped into an on-air role following Kirk’s assassination, said many of the decisions guiding TPUSA today were already underway before Kirk’s death. 

Earlier this month, The Charlie Kirk Show announced it would move away from its long-running nationally syndicated radio format, a shift that included elevating CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings into a new role while expanding the program’s streaming and television footprint. Kolvet said the decision was made by Kirk prior to his assassination.

“So what happened with radio is that was actually a decision that Charlie had made before he was killed,” Kolvet said. “So we kind of had a new path that we were charting even before. We were kind of seeing the numbers, seeing where the audience was going and we had made that decision.”

Kolvet said sticking to those plans was intentional in the weeks following Kirk’s murder, framing continuity as a way to honor his leadership rather than rework it.

“One of the ways that I felt like we should honor Charlie’s decision was to do exactly that and to keep the plan the plan,” Kolvet said. “And I kind of think you’re going to see that throughout my answers.”

That sense of obligation extended beyond operations. Kolvet said the decision to keep “The Charlie Kirk Show” on air came directly from Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, who stepped into a leadership role following the assassination.

“A couple days after Charlie was assassinated, Erika looked at me and she said, ‘You must keep the show going. They won’t silence my husband’s voice,’” Kolvet said. “So ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ is going to keep doing exactly what it’s always done, obviously without Charlie in the anchor chair.”

“We’re going to do our best to honor his legacy, to honor his memory. And that means keeping the show going,” Kolvet told the DCNF.

While Kolvet acknowledged the emotional toll of the past few months, he said the immediate focus has been on responsibility rather than reflection.

“If I’m being completely honest, I feel like the entire world has been a daze since Charlie was assassinated. I haven’t really taken internal stock of everything all the time,” Kolvet told the DCNF. “At this point, it’s my honor to do it. I feel like it’s my duty.”

‘TONE SHIFT’

That weight, balancing grief with continued operations, was echoed by TPUSA’s chief operating officer, Tyler Bowyer, who described the aftermath of the assassination as a moment when nearly all organizational activity paused.

“All of that basically had to be put on hold so that every bit of our talent, time, treasure, could go towards doing Charlie’s memorial the right way,” Bowyer said referring to the memorial TPUSA held for Kirk just 11 days after the founder was killed.

Bowyer said once the memorial concluded, TPUSA resumed work with a noticeably different internal tone.

“Obviously it’s different now. There’s a tone shift, for sure,” Bowyer said. “There’s a vibe shift, which is, like, now we feel more pressure, obviously. We’ve seen insane amounts of good come out of this, which is like people who have turned their hearts towards God and turned their hearts towards activism. But we’ve also seen evil, right?”

“There’s people who want to take advantage of the situation, politicize it. Use it for their own benefit. They want to try to take some of Charlie’s spotlight. So that’s probably been the most weighing thing,” Bowyer added.

He described the organization as more serious and more guarded than before, driven by both the scale of attention now on TPUSA and the expectations placed on it heading into the next election cycles.

“Our team is more serious than ever,” Bowyer said. “And it’s part of that — it’s like, more defensive than ever of trying to make sure we do right by Turning Point.”

Bowyer said that seriousness has translated into an emphasis on tangible political activity rather than online discourse, particularly as Republicans look toward the 2026 midterms.

“Obviously, we’re a big player in the conservative space, so we have to set the example. So, for sure, we can’t do things that as a movement, that we might personally want to do,” Bowyer said. “But I think what’s most important is you have to provide things to do that are positive, that are going to be united.”

“So that’s why this is so important. Like, imagine if this didn’t exist? Everyone would just be sitting at home right now. Like, does that help the movement? No, I mean, there’s so many things that you can do,” Bowyer added.

The TPUSA chief operating officer pointed to voter mobilization, coalition building and ballot-chasing efforts as areas where TPUSA intends to concentrate its resources.

EXPECTATIONS FROM DONORS

That emphasis on execution and follow-through was also reflected in conversations with donors, including Adam Nelson, who has supported TPUSA for four years and said expectations among contributors have shifted as the organization continues to grow.

Nelson said he had early uncertainty about how TPUSA would operate without Charlie Kirk, particularly on how Erika Kirk would be leading the company since the announcement of her officially stepping in as CEO.

“In full transparency, at first I was a little bit like, ‘Okay, great, she’ll jump in and intern this and it’ll be a transition period,” Nelson said, referring to Erika Kirk. “After the first couple times of listening to her talk about the direction of Turning Point and what she has envisioned moving forward, there was a sigh of relief amongst a lot of the donors.”

That relief, Nelson said, came with the recognition that no single figure could replicate Kirk’s role, but instead hoping towards a new shift that Erika could bring to the organization.

“We’re never going to replace Charlie,” Nelson said. “We don’t have a single person that can sit down and answer nine million unrehearsed questions.”

“We would have to replace him with a panel which kind of defeats the purpose of what that was. So, I think the version of what Erika has been talking about isn’t try to replace Charlie and go back on tour. It’s more of a, ‘Hey, we need to get people that can educate the youth of America and not necessarily go out there and debate the youth of America.’”

President Donald Trump credited Kirk with galvanizing Gen Z voters in the 2024 presidential election, as Kirk had focused on affordability and other youth concerns propelling young men into the polls for the president. When asked about the hot topic issue, Nelson said he believes the donor base is wanting to see more of the discussion be brought up again.

“So there was a big emphasis on that for probably the last two years now, and I think so far it’s gone fairly well, but I think even the donor base is looking for more on Turning Point’s side, the politician’s side, the lobbyist’s side. Everybody is looking for more because it has become a huge issue,” Nelson told the DCNF.

“I brought the FAU Turning Point chapter to the FAU football game. So they sat down on the field with us. I don’t know that they watched the game at all because there was free food,” Nelson added. “The conversations I’ve had with Turning Point and the conversations I’ve had with other donors, it is on the forefront of everybody’s minds to do something about it.”

Touching on concerns tied to the organization’s influx of new donors, Nelson said transparency and follow-through will be critical to retaining that support.

“A lot of times when you get new donors in anything, whether it’s a regular nonprofit or a massive nonprofit like this, there’s that, ‘I donated because I believed in it,’” Nelson said. “And now to continue donating you have to know what your money went to. I don’t know that some of the newer donors are going to have that already wrapped around in their head like, ‘What it’s going to look like? How do I know what Turning Point did with my money?’”

“So I think Turning Point needs to be very careful on trying to retain those new donors and keep them long term by making sure that they’re super diligent on how they’re reporting, who they’re sending the information to, when they send the information,” Nelson added. “The updates from Turning Point are very good when you’re a donor, but I don’t know that everybody gets the same information.”

EYES ON 2028

As TPUSA looks beyond the 2026 midterms, Bowyer said the organization’s planning already extends toward 2028, appearing to point towards a possible Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio ticket or “something of that nature.”

A handful of AmericaFest’s high school attendees told the DCNF that Vance was their top choice for 2028, with a majority of them wanting to see Rubio as the vice president option on the ticket.

As AmericaFest concluded, TPUSA leaders and donors alike described an organization navigating grief and growth simultaneously, intent on maintaining the direction Charlie Kirk set while testing whether the infrastructure he built can endure the next two election cycles.