Erika Kirk describes late husband’s electric energy before assassination
Mrs. Kirk, the widow of the late Charlie Kirk, spoke to a major news outlet just one week after the assassination of her husband and discussed his excitement for visiting college campuses
by Summer Lane | September 22, 2025
Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, has spoken about the electric energy her late husband had in the days leading up to his college campus tour this year – a tour that was ultimately cut short on September 10, 2025, by an assassin’s bullet.
While speaking to The New York Times just eight days after her husband was murdered on the campus of Utah Valley University, Mrs. Kirk, 36, discussed the incredible energy and excitement Charlie Kirk felt before the tour kicked off.
“He’d been waiting all summer to begin touring,” she said.
She told the outlet that college campus visits and debates were “like an Olympic event for him. He trained for them. He had whiteboard sessions for hours. Mock debates. He was just so excited.”
Mrs. Kirk, who shares two children with her late husband, was elected last week as the CEO and Chair of the Board of Turning Point USA – something the organization said was aligned with Charlie Kirk’s wishes.
“In prior discussions, Charlie expressed to multiple executives that this is what he wanted in the event of his death,” the organization stated.
Mrs. Kirk takes this new responsibility seriously. In her interview with the NYT, she said she asked President Trump if Turning Point USA could still utilize the president as a “sounding board” for ideas and projects at the organization, as Charlie Kirk did.
“And he said, ‘Of course,’” Erika told the outlet.
Even more insightfully, Mrs. Kirk described the very real security threats faced by her husband in the months leading up to his assassination – something that prompted her to ask him to wear a bulletproof vest during debates.
According to the report, Mr. Kirk felt confident that his security team could handle the campus tour.
Upon seeing her husband’s murdered body in Utah, Mrs. Kirk told the NYT, “His eyes were semi-open. And he had this knowing, Mona Lisa-like half-smile. Like he’d died happy. Like Jesus rescued him. The bullet came, he blinked, and he was in heaven.”
Photo: Screenshot/YouTube: The White House
