The grassroots army built by Charlie Kirk has seen unprecedented growth in the year since the Turning Point USA founder’s murder, but his death could still prove costly to Republicans in the Midterms, who are bereft of his drive, intellect and energy, pals told The Post.
Conservative grassroots and youth movement leaders candidly acknowledge their cause is marching against “headwinds” that have been difficult to navigate since Kirk’s shocking Sept. 10, 2025, assassination, which left operational and intellectual voids that have been a challenge to fill despite the surge in interest in Turning Point USA and conservative political activism over the last year.
“Everything within Turning Point, all the different programs, the verticals, everything’s growing … it’s kind of bursting at the seams,” Andrew Kolvet, a close friend of Kirk’s who serves as a spokesman for the conservative activist group, told The Post.
“Whether you look at our field programs, our social media, our media productions, our church partnerships, Turning Point Action [the group’s political advocacy arm], we have more ballot chasers,” he continued.
“We’re light years ahead of where we were in 2024, just as far as get out the vote efforts.”
Kolvet touted “over a million students are now a part of Turning Point in one way, shape, or form.”
A 180% increase in high school clubs, 64% growth in college chapters and more than double the attendance at Turning Point’s 2026 Chapter Leadership Summit compared to 2024, with two-thirds of attendees having become involved only after Kirk’s death, according to an internal document.
The organization Kirk founded as an 18 year old in 2012 now has over 1 million donors and more than 1,200 employees, per the document.
“Up and down the list, everything’s growing,” Kolvet said, “which is remarkable, and it’s a testament to Charlie’s legacy and how much he inspired people.”
“It’s also a testament to the team that Charlie built, and that is still in place,” he added. “The core team is all still in place … everybody’s just been working their fingers to the bone trying to make sure we don’t squander any of this momentum that Charlie gave his life for.”
In March, Turning Point set up shop in Las Vegas, opening a regional headquarters in Nevada.
Nevada is one of several states, including Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan and Iowa, where the group is looking to replicate the success it had at getting out the vote for President Trump in Arizona and Wisconsin in 2024 — both of which he won after losing them in 2020.
“We’re all in on Charlie’s mission,” Cliff Maloney, the head of voter contact group Citizens Alliance and a friend of Kirk’s, told The Post. “My favorite quote that I always go to is, ‘Do the work.”
But, Maloney lamented that Republicans have lost their “main driver” in Kirk.
“Charlie’s loss created a lot of missteps for Republicans,” he continued, “because I feel like he used to drive so much of the narrative and so many things that he kind of saw as imperative … there’s just not there’s not a main driver anymore, and that’s what Charlie was.
“He was a main driver of Republican thought, Republican action, and when you combine those two, it turns into – what is the Republican message? What are the Republican policies?”
Maloney argued that while it is clear “we are at a disadvantage” without Kirk, “that’s no reason to be disheartened: It’s time to double down and do the work.”
When asked if Kirk’s assassination when ask might cost Republicans some wins in the midterms despite his best efforts, Maloney responded, “100%.”
“Everything that we can control is growing,” Kolvet said, “but that doesn’t mean that we’re not aware of the fact that we exist within an ecosystem where you know a lot of young people are feeling disenchanted by politics in general and conservative politics.”
The Turning Point spokesman noted that the war in Iran and the Trump administration’s rollout of the Jeffrey Epstein files were not particularly well received on college campuses.
“This is a generation that’s faced a lot of structural challenges,” Kolvet said, pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation during the Biden administration, the 2008 financial crisis, soaring housing prices and artificial intelligence.
“So, it’s easy to feel disenchanted with politics, or – the worst option – become radicalized by free-stuff populism, which is just socialism,” he said.
The Turning Point spokesman was careful not to put words in Kirk’s mouth, but said he thought the slain activist would be “frustrated” with the current state of the conservative political landscape.
“I think he would be frustrated by the infighting. He’d be frustrated by the fact that we put so much work into winning young voters in 2024, to see some of the steps back that we’ve taken,” Kolvet said.
He added: “He would be working his tail off to kind of bring people back to understanding that we have to be focused on fighting for the country, not fighting each other, and fighting to win in the midterms.”
