PHOENIX—At 6 a.m. on Dec. 21, the crowd outside the Phoenix Convention Center was already enormous. Before dawn, thousands of Americans chatted, sang, and chanted on the sidewalks.
They were waiting to hear Vice President JD Vance and other speakers on the final day of AmericaFest 2025, a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event.
Many were youthful: the conservative high schoolers, college students, and young adults whom TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk sought to motivate before his assassination on a college campus in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10.
The shock and sadness of that moment were soon tempered by faith and purpose. The 31-year-old’s followers and allies said that Kirk, the man who built a Republican juggernaut for President Donald Trump and “America First,” would have wanted them to keep fighting….
After Charlie Kirk’s Death, a Record-Breaking AmericaFest
