Trump White House scrambles to save Kirk’s young voter machine after his death

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By Nandita Bose, Tim Reid and Nathan Layne

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump White House is scrambling to preserve the powerful voter mobilization machine built by Charlie Kirk, whose assassination left a leadership vacuum at one of the right’s most influential political organizations, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Behind the scenes, the White House has held “preliminary discussions” about Vice President JD Vance engaging directly with young voters, a third source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was credited by President Donald Trump with helping boost his support among young voters in last year’s presidential election – especially young men, where Trump’s share jumped to 46%, up seven points from 2020.

Youth voter turnout will be critical in next year’s midterms, when Republicans will be fighting to retain control of Congress in what is expected to be a bruising election.

Turning Point announced on Thursday that Kirk’s widow, Erika, a businesswoman who shares her late husband’s Christian faith and conservative beliefs, would become its new CEO. She had vowed in a video address immediately after his death to double down on her husband’s mission to win over young Americans to conservative causes.

Still, Kirk’s death has left Turning Point without its most influential and charismatic spokesman and his unrivaled ability to draw huge crowds on campuses across the U.S. even as he divided public opinion with remarks about Black Americans, LGBTQ+ communities, Muslims and immigrants.

KIRK AIDE SAYS VANCE WAS A “DEAR, DEAR” FRIEND

The White House has been careful not to appear to be rushing to fill the void left by Kirk. Trump’s spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the president was proud to honor Kirk’s legacy at a memorial on Sunday.

“Charlie played a crucial role in making historic inroads with young voters, contributing to his sweeping victory in November,” Kelly said.

Vance will also speak at the memorial service in Arizona. A White House official, who did not wish to be identified, stressed in a statement that Vance’s response to “Charlie’s death isn’t political, it’s personal.”

Private conversations at the White House reflect a growing belief among senior officials, including the vice president himself, that the administration must build on Kirk’s momentum by actively mobilizing the next generation of conservatives, the third source said.

No decision has been finalized on the exact format of any role for Vance, the third source added, but it could potentially include a college tour starting this year.

Reuters could not determine to what extent the discussions have been limited to the White House or shared more broadly with younger leaders within the conservative movement.

Andrew Kolvet, a senior aide to Kirk and spokesman for Turning Point, said he had not been privy to any conversations about a potential role for Vance in rallying young voters, but “JD would be perfect for it.”

“Not only is he a millennial but he’s one of the youngest vice presidents in history. He was dear, dear friends with Charlie Kirk and Charlie loved JD.”

In interviews with a dozen current and former members of Turning Point and leaders of Republican young voter groups, many said they would welcome a higher profile role for the 41-year-old Vance.

The White House believes Vance’s relatability, digital fluency, and personal story – he grew up in a poor family in rural Appalachia, was a U.S. Marine and studied at Yale Law School – make him well-suited to connect with younger voters, the source said.

As one of the youngest vice presidents, he’s seen as uniquely positioned to speak to Gen Z on platforms they trust and in a tone they respond to, the source added.

“Vance would be a fantastic asset,” said Hayden Padgett, chairman of the Young Republican National Federation. “He’s not far in age from being one of us.”

TYLER BOWYER MASTERMINDED GRASSROOTS WORK

Most of those interviewed by Reuters also highlighted the importance of Turning Point’s chief operating officer, Tyler Bowyer, the mastermind behind much of the group’s grassroots work in turning out young voters. 

“Charlie was the frontman, the fundraising machine, and the architect of Turning Point,” said Will Donahue, chairman of the College Republicans of America. “Tyler was the mastermind behind Turning Point Action’s success on the ground,” he said, referring to the group’s political arm.

That operation – backed by a $100 million effort and thousands of campus chapters – will continue without Kirk, allies say, with Bowyer and others already planning to target key House races in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Arizona.

Young conservative leaders are already stepping into the void left by Kirk. They include Brilyn Hollyhand, chair of the RNC Youth Advisory Council, who is preparing to launch a college campus speaking tour, in coordination with Turning Point USA chapters.

The underlying infrastructure that Turning Point has built over the years, which includes a network of 900 college chapters and around 1,200 high school chapters, may even strengthen in the wake of Kirk’s death, people familiar with its inner workings told Reuters.

About one in 20 U.S. adults under 30 say they identify “strongly” with the president’s Make America Great Again movement, compared to one in 6 Americans age 60 and older, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in August. 

KIRK WILL BE HARD TO EMULATE

Kolvet, the spokesman for Turning Point, told Reuters the organization had received 40,000 requests from colleges and high schools to establish new chapters since Kirk’s death.

John Della Volpe, a pollster who specializes in Gen Z voters, said he was skeptical of the extent to which Vance or anybody else could garner the level of trust that Kirk had earned with young conservatives since starting Turning Point in 2012.

“It took Kirk years to build an organization that reflected what he wanted for himself – that kind of cultural foothold is hard to replicate,” said Della Volpe, director of Polling at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.

Some young conservative leaders said Kirk’s ability to create viral social media moments in debates with young progressives and to translate Trump’s agenda into language that connected with a young audience would be difficult to reproduce.

Preston Hill, president of Turning Point’s chapter at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said he believed that multiple conservatives would need to step forward to collectively fill the void, rather than just one person.

“I think hundreds of smaller, more local versions of Charlie Kirk will come out of this.”

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Tim Reid in Washington, Nathan Layne in New York, additional reporting by Jason Lange and Jeff Mason in Washington, editing by Ross Colvin and Claudia Parsons)