“We win with ballots, not bullets,” he said. “That’s who we are as Americans.”
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Over 3,000 people gathered at Montana State University on Tuesday night for Turning Point USA’s “This Is the Turning Point” tour, the second college stop since founder Charlie Kirk was murdered. The Bozeman stop featured Gov. Greg Gianforte and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, both giving emotional tributes to founder Charlie Kirk.
They both offered calls to action before a packed crowd of students and supporters. The governor praised Kirk for his worldview that was “challenging what he learned against the thoughts of others who disagreed with him in respectful debate.”
The event was part of TPUSA’s nationwide tour launched after Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10, during a campus event in Utah. Since his death, the organization has seen a massive surge in support—receiving more than 120,000 requests to start new chapters in just the first four days. TPUSA currently runs over 900 college and 1,200 high school chapters nationwide.
Ramaswamy, who shared the stage with Kirk several times before, spoke for nearly an hour about the meaning of American identity and the future of the conservative movement. He began by talking about his last time in meeting with Kirk, describing his return to the TPUSA stage as “a much more emotional state."
Ramaswamy urged the crowd to carry on Kirk’s message through peaceful means rather than retaliation. “We win with ballots, not bullets,” he said. “That’s who we are as Americans.”
He told attendees that the conservative movement faces a “fork in the road” whether to focus on defeating political opponents or saving the country’s principles. “Both of those things are consistent with Charlie’s Christian faith,” Ramaswamy said while also referencing Erika Kirk’s public forgiveness of her husband’s killer. “We conservatives have an obligation, now more than ever, to stand up for truth over falsehood.”
Ramaswamy used the address to outline what he called “a new American dream,” invoking themes of unity, faith, and resilience. “A new American dream where you can speak your mind in the open without somebody putting a bullet in your neck,” he said, drawing cheers from the audience. “A new American dream where we are no longer a house divided, but a nation united.”
He concluded by recalling a conversation he had with Kirk shortly before his death. “Our shared American identity isn’t about race or paperwork,” Ramaswamy said. “We’re a nation defined by a set of ideals that unite an extraordinary group of people.”
"If you happen to have physically entered our country and been granted a piece of paper by the government, but you don't actually believe in the ideals of our country, then once again, you're not really an American, not in the deepest sense of that word. But if you do believe in those ideals, wait your turn.
"Enter the country legally. Work hard. Play by the rules. Make your contributions. Take your oath of allegiance to the country. Assimilate into the country and become a citizen. Then you're every bit as much of an American as anybody else in this country. Thank you.
"And you see, that is what makes America different from every other nation in human history. As Ronald Reagan once said, you can go to Italy, but you'll never be an Italian. You can move to Germany, but you would never be a German. You can live the rest of your life in China or Japan. You would never be Chinese or Japanese.
"Yet you can come from any one of those countries to the United States of America. And you can still be an American. So long as you pledge allegiance to the ideals enshrined in our flag," Ramaswamy said.
Ramaswamy called on conservatives to live out those ideals. “If we can revive that dream over group identity and victimhood and grievance,” he said, “then nobody in the world — not a nation, not a corporation, not a virus, not a campus shooter — is going to defeat us.”
They both offered calls to action before a packed crowd of students and supporters. The governor praised Kirk for his worldview that was “challenging what he learned against the thoughts of others who disagreed with him in respectful debate.”
The event was part of TPUSA’s nationwide tour launched after Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10, during a campus event in Utah. Since his death, the organization has seen a massive surge in support—receiving more than 120,000 requests to start new chapters in just the first four days. TPUSA currently runs over 900 college and 1,200 high school chapters nationwide.
Ramaswamy, who shared the stage with Kirk several times before, spoke for nearly an hour about the meaning of American identity and the future of the conservative movement. He began by talking about his last time in meeting with Kirk, describing his return to the TPUSA stage as “a much more emotional state."
Ramaswamy urged the crowd to carry on Kirk’s message through peaceful means rather than retaliation. “We win with ballots, not bullets,” he said. “That’s who we are as Americans.”
He told attendees that the conservative movement faces a “fork in the road” whether to focus on defeating political opponents or saving the country’s principles. “Both of those things are consistent with Charlie’s Christian faith,” Ramaswamy said while also referencing Erika Kirk’s public forgiveness of her husband’s killer. “We conservatives have an obligation, now more than ever, to stand up for truth over falsehood.”
Ramaswamy used the address to outline what he called “a new American dream,” invoking themes of unity, faith, and resilience. “A new American dream where you can speak your mind in the open without somebody putting a bullet in your neck,” he said, drawing cheers from the audience. “A new American dream where we are no longer a house divided, but a nation united.”
He concluded by recalling a conversation he had with Kirk shortly before his death. “Our shared American identity isn’t about race or paperwork,” Ramaswamy said. “We’re a nation defined by a set of ideals that unite an extraordinary group of people.”
"If you happen to have physically entered our country and been granted a piece of paper by the government, but you don't actually believe in the ideals of our country, then once again, you're not really an American, not in the deepest sense of that word. But if you do believe in those ideals, wait your turn.
"Enter the country legally. Work hard. Play by the rules. Make your contributions. Take your oath of allegiance to the country. Assimilate into the country and become a citizen. Then you're every bit as much of an American as anybody else in this country. Thank you.
"And you see, that is what makes America different from every other nation in human history. As Ronald Reagan once said, you can go to Italy, but you'll never be an Italian. You can move to Germany, but you would never be a German. You can live the rest of your life in China or Japan. You would never be Chinese or Japanese.
"Yet you can come from any one of those countries to the United States of America. And you can still be an American. So long as you pledge allegiance to the ideals enshrined in our flag," Ramaswamy said.
Ramaswamy called on conservatives to live out those ideals. “If we can revive that dream over group identity and victimhood and grievance,” he said, “then nobody in the world — not a nation, not a corporation, not a virus, not a campus shooter — is going to defeat us.”
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