Charlie Kirk speaks on stage at America Fest 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 22, 2024. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
PHOENIX – The second family will be flying to Salt Lake City, Utah, to visit Charlie Kirk’s family and a number of close friends on Thursday, Sept. 11, a source familiar told Fox News Digital.
The Turning Point USA founder, 31, was fatally shot Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University.
Kirk’s casket will likely be flown back on Air Force Two to Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday night, along with his family and friends, according to the source.
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Turning Point USA is headquartered in Phoenix. Friends and followers gathered at the headquarters on Wednesday night for a vigil.
Vice President JD Vance shared a deeply personal remembrance of Kirk in a lengthy post on X, honoring his late friend as a man of courage, faith and profound loyalty.
Charlie Kirk (R) and his wife Erika Lane Frantzve (L) on stage during the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball at the Salamander Hotel on January 19, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Kirk was a close confidant of Vance’s, both personally and politically. Their friendship stretched from early skepticism about Donald Trump in 2016 to the heights of the 2024 campaign trail.
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Vance’s candid social media reflection gave a rare glimpse into Kirk’s influence — not only on the conservative movement, but also on the very formation of the Trump-Vance team.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and J.D. Vance greet supporters at the end of a campaign rally on May 1, 2022, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“Charlie was one of the first people I called when I thought about running for Senate in early 2021,” Vance wrote. “We talked through everything, from the strategy to the fundraising to the grassroots of the movement he knew so well. He introduced me to some of the people who would run my campaign and also to Donald Trump Jr.”
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Kirk, a longtime advocate for young people in the conservative movement, was described by Vance as pivotal to President Trump’s decision-making process in his selection as running mate in 2024.
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