He speaks movingly about hope and love — and taking on our broken economy and politics
If you weren’t aware of right-wing organizer and podcaster Charlie Kirk‘s work until his tragic murder in Utah on Sept. 10, you probably didn’t realize he was the likely heir apparent of Donald Trump‘s MAGA movement. In fact, many people who were aware of his mission — which included co-founding Turning Point USA, the youth organization that helped return Trump to the White House, and touring colleges to engage young conservatives and harangue young liberals — might not have understood that. Kirk’s assassination made clear just how valuable and influential he was to the right. At 31, an official position of power within the GOP would have been his for the taking in just a few years.
His importance to the MAGA movement was underscored by their instantaneous crusade against the amorphous left. GOP influencers and officials, from the president on down, have vowed to avenge Kirk’s death by using the power of the state to quell dissent and, as White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller put it, “dismantle the left” — even as they eulogized Kirk as a model for free speech.
Democrats have been gobsmacked by this massive outpouring of anger that shows no signs of quieting. The party’s elected officials proclaimed their horror at the killing and made clear that political violence of any kind is unacceptable. But a few have stepped forward with messages that have resonated in different, deeper ways during this awful week of rage.
One of them is James Talarico, a Texas state representative and Presbyterian seminarian who announced a run for the United States Senate in the Lone Star State against GOP Sen. John Cornyn the day before Kirk’s assassination. At 36, Talarico is only a few years older than Kirk, and while he doesn’t explicitly fashion himself as a voice of the younger generation, he may nonetheless represent the same generational change for Democrats that Kirk did for the MAGA movement.
