DALLAS—Thousands of people loudly chanted “Charlie! Charlie! Charlie!” as high-profile speakers paid tribute to slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
And, in quieter, less-obvious ways, Kirk’s spirit echoed in minds and hearts among GOP convention attendees on Sept. 10, the first anniversary of Kirk’s assassination and the final day of the historic 2026 GOP convention.
“I don’t think I really, truly realized the impact that Charlie had on the conservative movement until after he passed away,” Ajua Mason, 43, of Dallas told The Epoch Times in a hallway of the convention venue, American Airlines Center.
To her, Kirk served as the “glue” that held together various factions of American conservatives. “Now things seem a little off-kilter, since he’s been gone,” Mason said. But she says it’s encouraging that people he inspired, including her, are pulling together to continue what he started.
Kirk, 31, whom President Donald Trump and other national leaders called a friend, was shot to death at Utah Valley University in 2025; prosecutors allege a gunman targeted Kirk because of political differences.
“His death was not in vain,” Mason said. “There is going to be a rise of the next generation that’s going to take a stand against the evils that are trying to perpetuate throughout society.”
Kirk founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a conservative youth movement that now claims 1 million student members.
Mason said: “I want to thank Charlie Kirk for his bravery, his courage, his energy. It takes a lot of energy to do what he did, building something from the ground up.”
She came to the convention wearing custom-made Kirk-themed leggings and a T-shirt displaying a picture she took with Kirk. The two ran into each other in a hotel lobby when Mason traveled to a 2024 TPUSA event in Phoenix.
“I see myself in Charlie Kirk, because he saw a gap that needed to be filled—with the young people. … Now I also see a gap with county-level politics that I’m trying to fill,” she said. “So, I’ve been inspired by him to just—no matter what—push through it, no matter what the naysayers say.”
Sporting a red Kirk “Freedom” T-shirt—the same slogan Kirk was wearing on his T-shirt when he was slain—Melissa Lim of McKinney, Texas, said Kirk’s courage to speak from his heart made him special to millions of people nationwide.
While Kirk can’t be replaced, his legacy will survive through the “truth of his values,” she told The Epoch Times.
Lim feels that another conservative leader will rise to continue Kirk’s work with young people.
“The Lord will provide the right person with possibly a little bit of a different skill set,” she said.
Frank Sobyak and Scott Mitchell, both of Plano, Texas, are proof that Kirk’s influence is spreading. Both said they didn’t know much about Kirk until after his assassination.
Sobyak told The Epoch Times he began watching Kirk videos online and now follows him.
Kirk was a guiding light for America’s youth, Sobyak said.
“What an amazing man, and how unfortunate to lose him,” Sobyak said. “I wish he were here to still inspire us.”
Kirk’s influence also extended to the nation’s highest echelons of society and government.
Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. called Kirk a friend and a “happy warrior” defined by faith, family, and free speech.
“Charlie loved this country more than anything,” Donald Trump Jr. said, adding that Kirk also understood that America was facing a moment of truth. “He understood that the future of Western civilization was on the line in 2024 and beyond.”
Vice President JD Vance told the audience that Kirk will go down in history as a great man and also as “a good man” who was godly.
Kirk encouraged young men to get married and start families because he believed there was no higher calling in life.
Vance said young people who followed Charlie must keep supporting conservatives at the ballot box.
“Don’t give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there,” the vice president said.
Pastor Lucas Miles, director of TPUSA Faith, gave a four-minute speech as a group of Trump fans, “the Front-Row Joes,” unfurled a banner bearing Kirk’s photo and his lifespan dates, 1993–2025.
“A voice can be silenced, but the truth cannot,” Miles said, adding, “Sometimes, the silencing of one voice does not produce silence at all. It produces an echo, and if the voice was true enough and the conviction deep enough, the echo becomes a chorus.”
That is what happened with Kirk, he said.
“There is something wonderfully defiant about the fact that his voice has not grown quieter; it has multiplied,” Miles said.
The crowd began cheering more loudly as he rattled off a series of tallies documenting TPUSA’s growth. The organization now has more than 1,500 collegiate chapters, 3,500 high school chapters,12,000 pastors, 25 million social media followers, and 11.2 billion all-time views of its digital content, he said.
“The people who never even had the opportunity to hear Charlie speak are now discovering the faith that animated his life,” Miles said.
He called upon conservatives to “hold the coalition together, to act from our shared convictions, and to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the Earth.”
Emel Akan contributed to this report.
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