When conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025, those who witnessed it said time froze.
It proved to be a pivotal moment. A year on in Utah, his death has propelled some young people to become more active in politics, while others have stepped away completely.
At the height of his influence, Kirk’s political organization Turning Point USA drew tens of thousands of young voters to events. He toured nationally and regularly met with the president and vice president of the United States.
“You can never replace him,” said Sara Nasuta, the Southwest regional manager for Club America, Turning Point’s high school organization. She spoke in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of TPUSA or Club America.
For the last several years, Nasuta has had a front-row seat to teenagers’ political lives. She started working for Kirk’s organization in 2023 and said back then, there were only a handful of high school chapters in the state. Leading up to his death, Club America had been gaining some momentum in Utah off the back of the 2024 election, and by September 2025, she was overseeing 14 chapters.
“A lot of kids just wanted to become politically engaged, and I found some of my best kiddos during that time, for sure,” she said.
So when Kirk died, what happened to the young conservative movement he was building? The answer is not black and white.
On one hand, Club America’s numbers in Utah boomed. High school chapters have since more than quadrupled from 14 to 66, and there’s been a large increase in college chapters nationwide, as well.
“I mean, a lot of them have just been inspired to be super active,” Nasuta said, talking about the high schoolers she deals with. From her perspective, Kirk’s death “lit a fire” under teens in the state to get involved politically, and there hasn’t been a lot of drop-off. Some of them are her best chapter leaders.
“Students who got involved after 9/10 are still involved today,” she said.
But Nasuta works with politically motivated students, who live in a red state and run in circles that lean toward Kirk’s brand of politics.
That’s not true of everyone impacted by his death.
Kirk’s politics were deeply polarizing. He once famously called George Floyd a “scumbag” during a speech in Minnesota and compared abortion in the U.S. to the Holocaust. His opponents branded this rhetoric as hate speech, while those in his corner revered it as freedom of expression.
Thousands saw his death in person, millions more online. People argued online over whether or not he deserved it. Some were fired or even arrested for their comments. Over time, lost jobs were reversed, and some even got payments to settle First Amendment claims that came from the inevitable lawsuits.
In interviews and repeated attempts to speak with Utah Valley University students, KUER found many were hesitant to discuss Kirk and, in some cases, politics more broadly in the year since his death.
UVU graduate Hazel Kynaston, who accessed state victim benefits for mental health therapy, only agreed to speak on the condition that politics not be discussed. She never disclosed whether she agreed or disagreed with Kirk’s viewpoints, only that she hadn’t heard of him until he was killed.
“To me, all of that washed away because I saw a person, a human being, get murdered in front of me,” she said.
Kirk’s death didn’t just impact young people.
“Here's what I'll say: It had an impact on everybody who would say they're on the right of center in politics in the state of Utah,” said Derek Monson, executive director of the Sutherland Institute, a Utah-based conservative think tank.
He was in his office when Kirk was shot and remembered the immediate feeling of loss, followed by a sense of how to address it.
“What do we say? How do we say it? When do we say it?” he remembered thinking.
But once the dust had settled, Monson said there have been far more subtle and longer-lasting impacts on how he operates. The institute produces a podcast where they discuss issues facing Americans through a conservative lens. In the aftermath of Kirk’s death, Monson has been conscious of how he approaches politically charged conversations.
“The ability to engage civilly, but based on principles, and in a way that we're listening to all sides rather than just trying to swat them all down, that does continue to influence us,” he said. “And it just, the memory of Charlie Kirk's death is part of what makes it real, as opposed to something that we get complacent on.”
In a post-Kirk Club America, Nasuta wants to make sure students have a safe space to ask questions and discuss politics.
“I think just getting back to those basics of providing a space where kids can have an open dialogue, regardless if you're Republican or Democrat or whatever it may be,” she said.
On the anniversary of his death, supporters will gather where Charlie Kirk was killed to memorialize him. Turning Point USA’s Utah Valley University chapter organized the event. As in life, Kirk continues to divide the campus — with some students staunchly opposed to the memorial and others eager to honor his memory.
