{"id":153716,"date":"2025-09-13T11:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T11:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/153716\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T11:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T11:07:12","slug":"erika-kirk-speaks-out-young-arizonans-plan-to-honor-her-husband-charlie-kirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/153716\/","title":{"rendered":"Erika Kirk speaks out. Young Arizonans plan to honor her husband Charlie Kirk"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday evening, Erika Kirk stood behind a podium set up beside the chair her late husband Charlie Kirk sat on every day. It\u2019s where he hosted his podcast \u201cThe Charlie Kirk Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her remarks to the public come roughly two-and-a-half days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a college campus event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Authorities have apprehended the suspect, Tyler James Robinson, a 22-year-old from Washington, Utah.<\/p>\n

Erika Kirk took a deep breath and introduced herself before thanking a long list of people. The authorities in Utah, her Turning Point USA family and the White House.<\/p>\n

Thanking Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance, who traveled to Utah on Air Force Two to bring Charlie Kirk and his family back to Arizona, Kirk said, \u201cYou guys honored my husband so well bringing him home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charlie<\/p>\n

Vice President JD Vance, right, Second Lady Usha Vance, center, and Erika Kirk, holding a cross on a chain, deplane Air Force Two, carrying the body of Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA who was shot and killed, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. | Ross D. Franklin, Associated Press<\/p>\n

She expressed her gratitude to the Trump family, including a heartfelt message to President Donald Trump, who shared a close relationship with Kirk.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. President, my husband loved you,\u201d she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.<\/p>\n

She broke down at times but never stopped giving her remarks. Kirk spoke about the love she and her husband shared and vowed to keep fighting for the values he championed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow for all eternity, he will stand at his Savior\u2019s side, wearing the glorious crown of a martyr,\u201d Kirk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharlie loved his children and he loved me with all of his heart and I knew that every day.\u201d she said. \u201cHe made sure I knew that every day. Every day, he would ask me, \u2018How can I serve you better?\u2019 \u2018How can I be a better husband?\u2019 \u2018How can I be a better father?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk added, \u201cHe still is a good man. He was a perfect father. He was the perfect husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

She quoted one of Charlie Kirk\u2019s favorite bible verses.<\/p>\n

\u201cEphesians 5:25: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. My husband, laid down his life for me, for our nation, for our children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Erika Kirk also cautioned people against underestimating Charlie Kirk\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you thought that my husband\u2019s mission was powerful before,\u201d she said, \u201cyou have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cries of this widow will echo around the world, like a battle cry,\u201d Kirk said.<\/p>\n

\"APTOPIX<\/p>\n

The casket containing the body of Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA who was shot and killed is removed from Air Force Two at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. | Ross D. Franklin<\/p>\n

She urged young people, people of faith, parents and anyone in between to join the conservative movement and promised to help Turning Point USA become bigger.<\/p>\n

That means the college tours, the annual AmericaFest in December and the podcast and radio show are here to stay, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur battle is not simply a political one. Above all, it is spiritual, it is spiritual,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As she spoke about her new mission \u2014 preserving her husband\u2019s life\u2019s work \u2014 she revealed she didn\u2019t know the last time she slept.<\/p>\n

When she finally went home on Thursday, her young daughter asked where her dad was.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you tell a 3-year-old?\u201d she said, breaking down.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd my goodness, am I so humbled to witness Charlie alongside Jesus right now doing what you always want to do, baby, making heaven crowded, right? That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about,\u201d she said with a sad smile.<\/p>\n

Charlie Kirk\u2019s wife, Erika Frantzve Kirk, is an Arizona State University graduate and a former Miss Arizona. They met 10 years ago and had been married for four years.<\/p>\n

\"VP<\/p>\n

Air Force Two flies past the Capitol as it leaves Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. Vice President JD Vance came to Salt Lake City to pay his respects to Charlie Kirk\u2019s family after Kirk was shot and killed at an event at UVU Wednesday. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

TPUSA to carry Kirk\u2019s work forward<\/p>\n

At ASU on Friday, the young students Charlie Kirk inspired said they will take his legacy forward. ASU\u2019s Turning Point chapter and the campus College Republicans will host a vigil and a flag-staking ceremony at the university on Monday.<\/p>\n

Kirk made a name for himself organizing and debating college students across the country. His goal, as he told the Deseret News, wasn\u2019t to provoke but to challenge students to consider traditional values and to hear a conservative point of view, which they don\u2019t always get on college campuses.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie<\/p>\n

Charlie Kirk, center, conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, speaks to supporters of President Donald Trump at a rally outside the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, Friday, Nov. 6, 2020, in Phoenix. | Ross D. Franklin, Associated Press<\/p>\n

He was a regular at the Phoenix-based ASU, which became an early hub for his conservative activism.<\/p>\n

Kirk visited the ASU campus last year as part of the \u201cYou\u2019re Being Brainwashed\u201d tour in October, ahead of the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the cornerstone of the Generation Z conservative movement,\u201d Troy Holderby, president of College Republicans at ASU<\/a> and a sophomore studying mathematics, told the State Press<\/a>, a student-run newspaper. \u201cHe really is the foundation for everything that I think we\u2019re going to see coming in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk \u201cloved it here,\u201d said Carson Carpenter, the former president of College Republicans at ASU, about the political commentator\u2019s love for the state.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie<\/p>\n

Sisters Clara Hetland, 4, left, Haddie Hetland, center, 9, and Audra Hetland 6, of Surprise, Ariz., spend time at a makeshift memorial set up at Turning Point USA headquarters after the shooting death at a Utah college on Wednesday of Charlie Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the organization, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. | Ross D. Franklin, Associated Press<\/p>\n

Carpenter told the Deseret News he planned to attend the upcoming vigil as he works through the sense of shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people I\u2019ve talked to just still can\u2019t even comprehend it yet,\u201d he said. It doesn\u2019t matter if supporters worked for him, met him only briefly or watched him online; the grief feels universal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s different about being in Arizona and being in the valley here. His headquarters was 10 minutes away from campus for Turning Point,\u201d Carpenter said, \u201cIt\u2019s just very personal.\u201d He first met Kirk as a high schooler in 2021.<\/p>\n

Carpenter interned at Turning Point Action during his final semester as a political science major at ASU. After graduating in May, he launched his own business Off The Record USA which helps digital creators monetize their platforms.<\/p>\n

He credits Kirk for his success. \u201cCharlie built others up. He built (Turning Point USA) that\u2019s so big now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people are going to let his legacy be forgotten,\u201d he added. That\u2019s the very sentiment the leaders of Turning Point USA share.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie<\/p>\n

People pray at a makeshift memorial set up at Turning Point USA headquarters after the shooting death at a Utah college on Wednesday of Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder and CEO of the organization, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. | Ross D. Franklin, Associated Press<\/p>\n

Charlie Kirk and his wife, Erika<\/p>\n

Carpenter said he has been thinking about the last time he spoke to Kirk. He described a 20-minute long conversation at the TPUSA headquarters in 110 degree heat. It was just small talk at first before Kirk opened up about his life outside of work. They talked about faith and family, and he looked forward to going home to his wife Erika and their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see all these public appearances of him relaying that message and he relays it privately too,\u201d Carpenter added.<\/p>\n

Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of \u201cThe Charlie Kirk Show,\u201d took on the duties of hosting the podcast alongside Kirk\u2019s friends on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I have left his chair open and empty because nobody will ever fill it, nobody could ever hope to,\u201d Coleman said on the show.<\/p>\n

According to a Fox News report<\/a>, Kolvet called Vance a \u201cclass act\u201d for being there for Kirk\u2019s family. He also revealed the vice president is \u201cgrieving in private.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJD is hurting too,\u201d Kolvet said. \u201cJD loved Charlie as a brother and as a friend. They talked \u2026 probably via text almost every day, if not every day. JD was strong.<\/p>\n

Tyler Bowyer, a TPUSA executive, joined Coleman on the show Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s been really hard,\u201d he confessed, visibly emotional. He encouraged supporters to share their stories about Kirk. Blake Neff, who traveled with Kirk the past two years, was with Kirk the day he died.<\/p>\n

\"Turning<\/p>\n

Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point Action chief operating officer, answers interview questions in his office at Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives me some solace and some comfort to know that you were there with him on campus that day,\u201d Coleman told Neff. \u201cI was just grateful to be able to call you … and it\u2019s not fair to you that you had to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neff recalled Kirk trying to fine-tune his arguments prior to taking the stage at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it was about, it was, \u2018What are the good arguments in favor of marriage? A Christian version of marriage,\u201d Neff revealed. \u201cIt gets back to one of the core things: how much he loved Erika, how much he loved their children and how much he cared for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group joked about Kirk\u2019s transformation after he met his wife. \u201cBetter clothes. They actually fit,\u201d said Bowyer. She helped him look well-dressed and stylish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just remembering Charlie being when I first met him. It was like, everything was baggy and the suits didn\u2019t fit and like, the collars were always out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Friends like Donald Trump Jr., the president\u2019s son, tried helping Kirk with his fashion sense, or the lack thereof, Bowyer said on the show. \u201cThey gave him a $10,000 gift card at one point to the Trump tailor in Manhattan to get him some proper suits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Turning<\/p>\n

Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA founder and president, answers interview questions on the set of \u201cThe Charlie Kirk Show\u201d at Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

\u201cCharlie\u2019s faith became so much stronger as soon as Erika came around,\u201d Bowyer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is fierce. She is strong. She\u2019s obviously distraught and hurting as we all are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair met at a pivotal point in Kirk\u2019s life. Prior to the first Trump rally organized by TPUSA in Arizona, Erika, the freshly crowned Miss Arizona, called the TPUSA offices and asked to get involved. She attended the rally. Bowyer saw her thirst to do something and her commitment to faith and asked her to work for the organization. But this plan fell apart, sort of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had introduced her to Charlie, was like, \u2018I think she could be great \u2026 and Charlie was immediately in love.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was over a decade ago. They got married on May 8, 2021, and shared four years of marriage together.<\/p>\n

\"Turning<\/p>\n

Charlie Kirk, right, and and his wife Erika Lane Frantzve, left, on stage during the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball at the Salamander Hotel on Jan. 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C. | Samuel Corum, Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday evening, Erika Kirk stood behind a podium set up beside the chair her late husband Charlie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[94303,236,49204,88,92900,94227,94301,942,94302,91302,94304,91303,55302],"class_list":["post-153716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-air-force-two","tag-celebrities","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-entertainment","tag-erika-frantzve-kirk","tag-erika-kirk","tag-phoenix-sky-harbor-international-airport","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-ross-d-franklin","tag-turning-point-usa","tag-usha-vance","tag-utah-valley-university","tag-vice-president-jd-vance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}