Erika Kirk marked her first Father’s Day without her late husband, Charlie Kirk, with a handwritten letter and a public tribute shared on social media.
Charlie Kirk, the conservative commentator and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed on September 10, 2025, while speaking on a college campus in Orem, Utah. Kirk had built Turning Point USA into a prominent youth-focused organization since founding it in 2012, with a stated mission of promoting free speech, free markets, and limited government among the next generation. His death drew an outpouring of remembrance from supporters around the world, and left Erika Kirk to carry both her family and the organization forward.
A Movement Passed to New Hands
Within days of the shooting, Erika Kirk stepped before cameras to deliver her first public remarks, speaking from her husband’s podcast studio in Arizona. Standing beside his empty chair, she reflected on the life he had lived and the movement he had launched, telling the country that the violence done to him had galvanized an entire generation to stand for what they believed was right. On September 18, Turning Point USA’s board unanimously elected her as the organization’s new CEO and Chair of the Board.
A Letter Written for Father’s Day
This Father’s Day, Erika addressed her tribute directly to Charlie, revealing that she had continued a personal tradition of writing him letters. “It’s Father’s Day, I still wrote you your letter (I will the rest of my life),” she wrote. “GG has it waiting for you by your coffee mug. I’ll save them all for our son when he gets older.”
She thanked him for making her a wife and mother, for his prayers over their family, and for the example he set for other fathers. “You will forever be an extraordinary father. Forever,” she concluded.
Now leading Turning Point USA as its CEO, Erika Kirk continues to navigate both a public role and private grief, with supporters watching closely as she shapes the organization her husband built.
