Why Charlie Kirk mattered so much to the Right

But it’s also undeniable that Kirk reimagined what it means to be a modern right-wing political figure. His most lasting legacy may be that he showed the Republican party the way to compete in today’s frenetic media world. More than anyone else without the surname Trump, Kirk is the figure whose rise best illustrates the changing of the American right.

AS A TEEN REPUBLICAN in suburban Chicago, Kirk studied talk-radio giant Rush Limbaugh and thought about how to adapt Limbaugh’s mix of bombast, politics, and entertainment to his own generation. He launched Turning Point USA in 2012 as a sort of next-generation vehicle for campus Republican activism. It was wildly different from the stodgy, nerdy, buttoned-up, loafers-and-slacks contrarians that had defined college Republicanism for generations.

It’s also no accident that TPUSA’s conferences became tentpole events for conservatives—replacing CPAC’s place on the calendar. Unlike those stuffy, blazers-and-pearls CPAC gatherings, TPUSA put on spectacles—typically in a Sun Belt hotspot like Miami, and typically featuring rowdy parties where budding Kirk wannabes networked and accelerated their own social-media brands.