A year after Charlie Kirk's death, Jeb Jacobi says Turning Point USA has not recovered the force it had before the Charlie Kirk statue talk and the killing at Utah Valley University. The third-year student and volunteer said the campus still carries the mark of the Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University.
“It feels like there's a forever stain on us here,” he said, adding, “This is where Charlie Kirk was killed.” Jacobi, who was at the event on 10 September last year, said, “It's not the same organisation” and “It just doesn't have the same power, the same impact.”
Utah Valley University and the killing
Jacobi witnessed Charlie Kirk's murder at Utah Valley University while volunteering at the Turning Point USA event there. He said Charlie Kirk was hit by a bullet fired from a sniper rifle when he collapsed at the event. Jacobi also said, “The culture has gotten more hostile.”
He described his own view of debate in restrained terms: “I love for everyone to have their own viewpoints and [be] sharing them,” he said. “The debate is good for society. It's what Charlie did.” Kirk had made a name for himself by hosting debates on college campuses, and his popularity on campuses and online made him a rising star in the Republican Party.
Turning Point USA after 32,000 inquiries
Five days after the killing, a Turning Point USA spokesperson wrote on X that the organisation had received “over 32,000 inquiries in the last 48 hours to start new campus chapters.” A chapter leader elsewhere in the US said, “this is quite literally just the beginning,” as supporters pointed to the surge around Charlie's death.
Over the following year, though, students said the momentum did not last. In Arkansas, one chapter completely changed its name to disassociate itself from the Kirk-founded organisation after students there said they were unhappy with the direction it was heading.
Support for Turning Point USA and
The strain also showed up in chapter identity and leadership. Support for Turning Point USA surged after Charlie Kirk's killing, but students later said the organisation lost momentum and internal divisions widened between moderate and right-wing factions.
Utah Valley lies in a conservative area where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats more than seven to one, yet the shooting and political aftermath still triggered a culture war on and off campus. The unresolved question now is who is leading Turning Point USA and what changes, if any, are being made to address the split inside the organisation.
