San Diego conservatives expressed their sorrow and dismay Wednesday at the death of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump.
Kirk, 31, was shot and killed at a Utah college event. Trump announced his death on social media and praised Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, as “great, and even legendary.”
“No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.
Kirk has spoken in San Diego County at least four times in recent years — including at San Diego State University in May 2024 and UC San Diego this past May.
Before his campus visits, Kirk spoke at San Diego’s right-wing Awaken Church in 2021 and 2023. The church urged prayers before news of his death broke.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Escondido, initially posted on X, urging people to “pray for @charliekirk11.” Two hours later, he posted “RIP @charliekirk11. Please keep his family in your hearts today.”
State Sen. Brian W. Jones, R-Santee, called the shooting “a purely evil act, the type for which there is no place in civil society.”
“America is the greatest nation on earth largely because of our freedom to openly discuss and express our differences,” he continued. “We cannot allow political discourse do devolve into hatred and violence.”
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, said he was “shaken and deeply saddened” by the shooting. Then he shifted into criticism of Gov. Gavin Newsom and the media.
“But let’s be clear: this tragedy is not happening in a vacuum. When politicians like Governor Gavin Newsom and media outlets recklessly smear conservatives as ‘homophobic’ or ‘racist,’ they dehumanize people with differing views and fuel the fire that leads unstable individuals to commit acts of violence,” DeMaio said in a statement.
Yet Newsom also condemned the violence that took Kirk’s life.
“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” the Democrat, who last March hosted Kirk on his podcast, posted on X.
The suspected shooter has not been arrested, Orem, Utah, Mayor David Young said. A person who was taken into custody by law enforcement at the university where Kirk was speaking was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong.”
Republican Central Committee member Amy Reichert — who ran for county supervisor after founding a group opposed to COVID-19 lockdowns — said on Facebook: “Charlie Kirk is with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you are reading this, I know he would want me to ask this. If you have never accepted Jesus, will you do so now.”
A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away. The AP was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.
Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions for an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” an audience member asked. Kirk responded, “Too many.”
The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked.
Then a single shot rang out.
Utah Valley University said the campus was immediately evacuated and remained closed. Classes were canceled until further notice.
The event, billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “The American Comeback Tour,” had generated a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”
Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit to Utah colleges was sparking controversy. He wrote, “What’s going on in Utah?”
The shooting drew swift bipartisan condemnation, with Democratic officials like Newsom joining Trump, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation, and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.
“The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends,” said Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district.
Locally, Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, posted to X, “This attack is horrifying. Political violence has no place in our country and it’s never acceptable. Never.”
Though no motive has been disclosed, the circumstances of the shooting fueled concerns that it was part of a spike of political violence that has cut across the political spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvania’s governor, who is Jewish, in April.
The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.
Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.
But Kirk’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.
The Republican Party of San Diego County issued a statement crediting Kirk with representing “some of the best traits of American democracy.”
“His participation in public life has been devoted to debate. He excelled at making a principled case for conservative governance,” party officials said. “His adversaries on the left owe him a debt of gratitude, because his pre-eminent rationality gave them the opportunity to sharpen their own views. We should all want more of that in our politics.”
Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, during the general election campaign.
Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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