BREAKING: Erika Kirk named board chair, CEO of Turning Point USA

Erika Kirk has been named the board chair and CEO of Turning Point USA. The announcement comes one week after her husband, Charlie Kirk, was killed by an assassin's bullet at Utah Valley University. President Donald Trump will be speaking at his Sunday memorial.

Turning Point USA announced her leadership on Thursday in a post. "In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon wrote that mankind is to be tested by God. Today we are facing such a test, yet we also know that God has prepared us with everything we need to overcome this ordeal.

"It was the honor of our lives to serve as board members at Charlie's side. Charlie prepared all of us for a moment like this one. He worked tirelessly to ensure Turning Point USA was built to survive even the greatest tests. And now, it is our great pride to announce Erika Kirk as the new CEO and Chair of the Board for Turning Point USA.

"All of us at Turning Point USA have a special role in carrying Charlie Kirk's mantle and completing his vision of bringing us all closer to our Lord and fostering a prosperous country for generations to come. As Charlie always said, "We have a country to save." We will not surrender or kneel before evil. We will carry on. The attempt to destroy Charlie's work will become our chance to make it more powerful and enduring than ever before.

"May God Bless Erika, the Kirk family, and the entire team at Turning Point USA."

 

Charlie's producer and dear friend Andrew Kolvet made the announcement on the Charlie Kirk Show Thursday morning alongside special guest host Megyn Kelly. "I'm pleased to be able to announce with you," Kolvet said to Kelly, saying that it was appropriate to announce it alongside Kelly, "that the board has unanimously elected Erika Kirk as the new CEO and chair of the board. And not only is that amazing in itself, but Charlie told me personally, and he probably told others... that if anything had happened to him, this is what he would have wanted."

He added that "in the immediate hours afterwards, Erika got a call from somebody very important, and we'll leave that vague out of privacy... and the question was 'what do you know.' Sort of asking how much of what's going on behind the scenes, and with the relationships, like 'what to do you know,' and her reply back was 'everything. I know everything.'"

The murder of the 31-year-old founder of TPUSA was a shock to his family, friends and the world and left the company he led without a leader. Erika Kirk spoke on Friday evening to remember her husband and, in that speech, she said that TPUSA, and her husband's integral mission, would continue.

"They killed Charlie because he preached," she said in her remarks, "a message of patriotism, faith and of God's merciful love. They should all know this. If you thought that my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country, in this world. You have no idea. You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife, the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry."

She vowed to continue his mission and now she will steward TPUSA into the future for young Americans. Kirk's mission was massive, including events, college tours, and speaking engagements. He had fans worldwide who shared in grief after his murder.

"To everyone listening tonight across America," she said, "the movement my husband built will not die. It won't. I refuse to let that happen. It will not die. All of us will refuse to let that happen. No one will ever forget my husband's name and I will make sure of it.

"It will become stronger, bolder, louder and greater than ever.

"My husband's mission will not end, not even for a moment," she said. "And one of Charlie's greatest talents was his ability, this phenomenal ability to choose great people to follow him. He could always find the ones who could handle any setback, and it's almost like he knew. He just, he could see it in you, even when you couldn't see it in yourself. He just knew, he knew you could handle it. You thought you only had 5% left, and he knew you had 15 he knew you were ready to go that extra mile, even when you didn't. He always challenged people around him to work harder and to be better. He never gave up. And I love knowing that one of his, one of his mottos, was never surrender.

"So I want to tell you that that will never surrender. We never will ever."

She said that America Fest in Phoenix, the annual gathering, will go on and "will be greater than ever." So too will his radio show and podcast continue. "In a world filled with chaos, doubt and uncertainty, my husband's voice will remain and it will ring out louder and more clearly than ever."