Legislation honoring late conservative activist Charlie Kirk with a roadway designation outside of Florida International University (FIU) is bound for the House floor after clearing its last committee on a party-line vote.
The House Commerce Committee voted 17-6 for the bill (HB 33) after a heated discussion that was exactly the kind of open discourse Kirk promoted, according to the bill’s sponsor, Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras.
“He would have wanted each and every one of us to have robust debate over the things that he cared about: civil discourse and God and country,” Porras said.
“Unfortunately, he was somebody who was not able to be conquered with words or with debate, and that’s why the left hates him. That’s why people are saying he was a racist.”
Or it could be the many racially charged statements Kirk made, several of Porras’ Democratic peers argued.
HB 33 would rename a 1-mile stretch of Southwest 107th Avenue between Coral Way and Tamiami Trail as “Charlie Kirk Memorial Avenue.”
Porras, who called Kirk a personal friend, said the location is appropriate, as he helped found Florida’s first Kirk-run Turning Point USA chapter at FIU back in 2015.
He also noted that the city of Sweetwater had issued a resolution supporting HB 33. The roadway in question isn’t in Sweetwater.
The measure would also authorize the renaming of a similar span of Commercial Boulevard in Broward County as “President Donald J. Trump Boulevard” — a provision, Porras said, that effectuates a prior resolution by the town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras said Charlie Kirk’s impact on national discourse transcends state lines and deserves recognition in Florida’s most populous county. Image via Florida House.
While the Trump road designation encountered pushback from locals late last year, the bill’s provisions concerning Kirk dominated the committee conversation Tuesday. Opponents argued renaming the road after Kirk — who was shot and killed by a lone sniper at a Utah university campus Sept. 10 — had little true connection to Florida or Miami-Dade County, where the road in question runs.
They also raised issue with Kirk’s rhetoric, including questions he raised about the qualifications of Black pilots, references to “prowling Blacks” targeting White people in urban areas and his perpetuation of the “great replacement theory.”
St. Petersburg Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner quoted Kirk calling Martin Luther King Jr. “awful” and George Floyd a “scumbag.” She recited another statement Kirk made about accomplished Black women like Michelle Obama, Joy Reid and Ketanji Brown Jackson as having to “steal a White person’s slot” through affirmative action because they “do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.”
“I have three degrees — earned; nobody gave them to me — and I’m a Black woman. You want me and my colleagues to sit up here and swallow rage and be forced to have a debate on a bill like this, to name a street after someone who doesn’t even live in Florida, who was not a Florida citizen, because he’s your friend?” she said. “I have a lot of friends I would like to … have bills for. I don’t do that because it’s inappropriate, it’s unprofessional and it’s disgusting.”
Rep. Felicia Robinson, a Miami Gardens Democrat, called the legislation hypocritical in light of other measures the GOP-dominated Legislature has advanced, including laws passed in 2023 and 2024 to crack down on rising antisemitism in Florida.
“It’s disrespectful to try to memorialize someone or lift someone up that spewed so much hate in their life,” she said.
Porras said Kirk did not discriminate against people based on any demographic characteristic and pointed out that the late activist had built or contributed to several minority-focused movements, including BLEXIT and the Young Black Leadership Summit, that have benefitted “tens of thousands of African Americans.”
Rep. Michele Rayner of St. Petersburg delivered the harshest criticism of HB 33, which she argued aims to honor a man who made numerous racist remarks. ‘How you die does not redeem how you lived,’ she said. Image via Florida House.
Homestead Rep. Kevin Chambliss, who joined Rayner, Robinson and fellow Democrats Christine Hunschofsky, Gallop Franklin and Leonard Spencer in voting “no,” said that while he “vehemently” disagreed with most of what Kirk said, he was nevertheless “saddened by the way this voice was taken from us.”
“I would have loved to have had that debate with him and let him see that perspective from my eyes,” Chambliss said, adding that he applauds Porras for sponsoring the bill while knowing the criticism doing so would draw. “Tough conversations (and) difficult debate, especially now, I promise you, will create a more peaceful world for our children later.”
Chambliss’ comments appeared to soften the stances of some Republicans on the panel, including Reps. Yvette Bennaroch, Chip LaMarca, Michelle Salzman and John Snyder, who echoed his sentiments in some fashion.
Salzman, of Escambia County, acknowledged that while it’s a foregone conclusion that the House will pass HB 33 because of the chamber’s Republican supermajority, her support of the measure isn’t a blanket endorsement of the increasingly divisive rhetoric that erupted in the wake of Kirk’s murder.
“I personally, and I know some of my colleagues I’ve talked to in our caucus — we don’t support or condone some of those things that have happened, even in the recent history,” she said.
LaMarca, of Lighthouse Point, stressed the importance of respectful dialogue.
“If we stop talking, what’s going on in the federal government happens,” he said. “I think we’re better than that.”
Other GOP members of the panel disputed how accurate Rayner and Robinson’s characterization of what Kirk said about race, women and progressive politics.
Hialeah Rep. David Borrero, an FIU alum, described Kirk as having a “relentless, unwavering commitment to pursue what is true” and doing everything “through love.”
“Every single person that he spoke with, he always blessed them. He never ridiculed or attacked the person. He always attacked the idea,” he said. “As a believer, I think that is the standard that we should uphold for ourselves.”
Port Orange Rep. Chase Tramont called the quotes Rayner recited part of “the same repetitive playbook constantly used” that led to Kirk’s death and two assassination attempts on President Donald Trump.
He said some of the quotes were either taken out of context, not the full quote or deliberately fabricated.
None were fabricated.
“When a man spends his life proclaiming the truth, it’s no surprise he’s attacked by lies even in death,” he said. “This idea that you disagree with me, so you’re a racist — I’m sick of hearing that. Just over it.”
HB 33 now pends scheduling for a full vote by the House. Its Senate companion (SB 174) by Doral Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez advanced through the first of three committees to which it was referred last month on a 6-3 vote.