Erika Kirk — a faith-based entrepreneur who has advocated for women to prioritize family over career — will officially lead Turning Point USA, the right-wing youth organization that her late husband Charlie Kirk created.
The group announced Thursday that its board unanimously elected her to be its CEO and board chair, saying Charlie had told multiple executives that is what he wanted to happen in the event of his death.
"This was what Charlie hoped for and wanted and he said so numerous times," COO Tyler Bowyer wrote on X. "Erika is one with Charlie and Charlie is one with Erika."
Erika Kirk, 36, had acknowledged that possibility in the speech she made two days after her husband was fatally shot during an event at a Utah university on Sept. 10.
In a tearful address, she pledged to continue Turning Point's campus tour, its annual AmericaFest conference and the radio show and podcast "that [Charlie Kirk] was so proud of."
"If you thought my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea," Kirk said. "You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country, and this world. You have no idea the fire you've ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry."
Erika Kirk is also slated to speak — along with President Trump and Vice President Vance — at her late husband's memorial on Sunday in Arizona, where the couple lived with their two young children.
Turning Point USA, which Charlie Kirk founded in 2012, advocates for conservative activism at high schools and colleges. Its website says it has a presence on 3,500 campuses nationwide.
The organization says it has seen a surge of interest in the wake of Kirk's assassination, tweeting on Thursday that it has received more than 62,000 requests "from high school and college students nationwide to start a chapter or get involved with an existing chapter," and hopes Erika Kirk at the helm will further expand its reach.
"Charlie Kirk came and converted the young men," Bowyer tweeted. "Erika Kirk is coming to convert the young women."
Erika — a former college basketball player and pageant queen who now runs a Christian clothing line and devotional podcast — espouses traditional views of gender and marriage, much like her husband. In public speeches and on her podcast, she has encouraged the prioritization of family and called for the "revival of biblical womanhood."
Who is Erika Kirk?
Erika Kirk, née Frantzve, grew up in Scottsdale, Ariz., in a Catholic family, raised by her mom after her parents' divorce.
After she was crowned Miss Arizona USA in 2012, she described herself in a local magazine interview as a "tomboy," saying: "I didn't wear my first pair of heels until I was 14 years old, but I had a really mean lay-up."
Kirk played NCAA basketball for two years at Regis University in Denver. According to her website, she holds degrees in political science and international relations from Arizona State University as well as a Juris Master in American legal studies from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., where she is currently pursuing a doctorate in biblical studies.
Kirk's biography describes her as a "driven social entrepreneur, passionate ministry leader, and woman of deep faith whose life has been shaped by her global experiences and unwavering commitment to purpose."
It says she has worked in the entertainment industry as a model, actress and casting director, "all while remaining grounded in her Christian faith." Recently resurfaced social media clips show her brief appearance in a 2019 episode of the Bravo reality show Summer House, for which she later said she had turned down the chance to be a cast member in order to focus on her legal studies.
Kirk created a Biblein365 ministry program in 2016 and is also the host of the "Midweek Rise Up" devotional podcast. She also runs a Christian clothing line called Proclaim.
How did Erika and Charlie Kirk meet?
The couple's first date, in September 2018, started as a job interview.
They met initially during a brief meeting at the opening of the Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix, where she had applied for a job. Shortly after, Charlie Kirk invited her to dinner during a visit to New York City, where she was living at the time. He chose a burger restaurant, and they sat "deep in conversation and banter over theology, philosophy and politics," Erika later recalled.
After her husband's death, she posted a video of him telling the story to their daughter as she sits on his lap in the same restaurant.
"I was asking all these questions … philosophy, religion, Jesus," Charlie Kirk explains. "And then I realized Mama was beautiful and smart and elegant and Christ-like, and so I said, 'Forget this job interview, I want to date you.'"
The two got engaged in December 2020 and married in May 2021.
Erika Kirk gave birth to a daughter in August 2022 and a son in May 2024. They have shared snippets of their life together in interviews and social media posts, keeping the names and faces of their children private.
Kirk appeared at Turning Point USA events over the years, supporting her husband and giving remarks of her own.
Despite her own entrepreneurial pursuits, her advice to young women has centered around prioritizing homemaking. At the Young Women's Leadership Summit in June, Kirk said "when I met Charlie, that was it — I could care less about the career."
She has talked about "submitting" to her husband, called "boss babe culture … antithetical to the Gospel" and encouraged women to be the "guardian" of the home.
What is the future of Turning Point USA?
Charlie Kirk's activism and large social media following are credited with galvanizing conservative voters and helping Trump to victory in 2024. Erika Kirk said after her husband's death that the movement he built "will not die."
"I refuse to let that happen. … All of us will refuse to let that happen," she said. "My husband's mission will not end, not even for a moment."
She vowed to continue the organization's fall campus "American Comeback" tour. Her husband was kicking off its first stop of the season when he was shot.
Kirk also urged people to sign up for its AmericaFest conference scheduled to take place in Phoenix in December. The speaking lineup, which has not been updated since Charlie Kirk's death, includes Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr. and conservative activists like Riley Gaines and Jack Posobiec.
Erika Kirk also called on young people inspired by her husband's legacy to join a Turning Point USA chapter on their own campus — or start their own if none exists.
In its statement announcing Kirk's election to CEO, the Turning Point USA board said that "Charlie prepared us all for a moment like this one" and vowed to push ahead.
"The attempt to destroy Charlie's work will become our chance to make it more powerful and enduring than ever before," it added.
Copyright 2025 NPR