This year’s Virginia governor’s race will test whether outrage over Charlie Kirk’s death will galvanize Gen-Z conservatives to vote.
Stephen Miller says assassination ‘immortalized Charlie Kirk’
Stephen Miller says Charlie Kirk’s assassination immortalized him and ignited a powerful movement.
BLACKSBURG, Virginia – Chloe Bolin, 25, stood in line for more than an hour to get a good seat at Turning Point USA’s Virginia Tech rally. A few weeks ago, it might not have occurred to her to attend.
Like many students waiting outside, Bolin, 25, first discovered Charlie Kirk, the organization’s co-founder, a few years ago when his videos began popping up on her TikTok ‘For You’ page. A devout Christian, Bolin became enamored by Kirk’s messages.
She rarely listened to Kirk’s podcast and didn’t consider herself an active follower of his. But when she found out he was murdered while speaking on a college campus in Utah Sept. 10, Bolin said she began to cry. She attended the pre-planned Turning Point tour stop at Virginia Tech to show her support for Kirk’s faith-based politics.
“Since Charlie’s passing, I’ve felt more inclined to be brave and say what I think and stand up for what I believe in,” Bolin said.
As Gen-Z conservatives like Bolin mourn Kirk’s death, many say they’ve become politically galvanized because of it – and Republican leaders are seeing an opportunity to capture that energy at the ballot box.
President Donald Trump and the GOP have tied the 31-year-old’s killing into broader messages casting Democrats as radical, hate-filled and violent. Some candidates running in the 2026 midterm have already invoked Kirk’s assassination in campaign ads and fundraising materials.
This year’s Virginia governor’s race, between Republican Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Democrat Abigail Spanberger, could be among the first tests of whether that strategy will work to drive youth voter turnout.
Tipping the scales
Bob Holsworth, a longtime political analyst in Virginia, described the Turning Point USA rally at Virginia Tech as an “effort to do something that the Republicans have been unsuccessful at in most previous elections” in the state. “That’s mobilizing young people on college campuses,” he said.
Exit polls from the 2020 presidential election showed then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden leading Trump among voters aged 18 to 29 by 30% in Virginia. A poll conducted by the company Atlas Intel two days before the 2024 presidential election showed Harris winning that same group of people in the state by a mere 3%.
Kirk played a pivotal role in helping Republicans close the gap among young voters in 2024. Turning Point led get-out-the-vote efforts and Trump, in December 2024, credited the organization and Kirk with helping achieve his win.
Adam Pennings, executive director of Run Gen Z, a nonprofit supporting young conservative candidates, said he expects to see “higher voter turnout, greater political engagement, and more young conservatives running for office” in the wake of Kirk’s death.
Students still unlikely to vote, except for president
But so far, Kirk’s death hasn’t shaken up this year’s race for Virginia’s governor.
Going back to 1977, Virginia has elected a governor in the opposite party as the president, every election cycle except 2013. Democrats are favored to win this year’s race.
Polls from early and mid-September showed Spanberger, a former CIA operative, about 10 points ahead of her Republican opponent. Among voters aged 18 to 29, Spanberger registered 20% more support than Earle-Sears, according to a Sept. 18 survey by Christopher Newport University conducted days after Kirk’s death.
Close to 40,000 students attend Virginia Tech. Fewer than 3,000 filled the maroon seats in the auditorium where Turning Point hosted its event.
As they waited to enter the building, some of Kirk’s most ardent supporters appeared apathetic about upcoming off-year elections, as Turning Point Action volunteers asked them if they were registered to vote.
Most of the students, clad in Make America Great Again hats and T-shirts emblazoned with Kirk’s face, ignored the registration queries and continued chatting with friends.
Many of the students USA TODAY spoke with said they were excited to vote in the 2028 presidential election but weren’t yet sure whether they’d cast a ballot this year or in the 2026 midterms.
Bolin, who is studying for her doctorate in veterinary medicine, said she has never considered herself politically engaged and has only ever voted in presidential elections in the past.
Kirk’s death galvanized her to more actively speak up about her beliefs. But Bolin, who is originally from Ohio, said she’s still not sure if she’ll vote in future local and state elections. She opted not to register in Virginia, saying she doesn’t know much about the candidates.
“I don’t want to just vote for the Republican,” she said, adding that there are some policy areas where she’s more on the Democratic side, including environmental issues.
Even among students who said they planned to vote in Virginia’s gubernatorial election, few knew the name of the candidates.
“I’m going to probably vote for the Republican. What’s her name?” said Landon Pond, a 20-year-old from Front Royal, Virginia, who added that he would support any candidate backed by current Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Looking toward the future
Leaves crunching underneath his feet, Kobie Dalton, 18, said he was going to vote for Earle-Sears, because he aligned with her on most issues, including his moral opposition to abortion.
But Dalton, from Radford, Virginia, was more concerned about Kirk’s legacy.
“Everybody, when it comes to politics is so divided,” he said. While Kirk often embraced divisive rhetoric, Dalton said he admired that the activist “was very civil.”
For Youngkin, one of two speakers at the Turning Point event, the short-term impact of Kirk’s death on GOP politics appeared far from the point.
Youngkin didn’t mention the upcoming Virginia election in his close-to-hour-long speech. He stood next to a hat and shirt of Kirk’s and encouraged attendees to openly discuss their politics and faith ‒ just as the 31-year-old activist had.
“It’s easy for moments to be flashes in the pan. The hard part is to endure,” Youngkin told the crowd. “Set your sights on the long term, to do the work that doesn’t have immediate satisfaction but impacts one year, five years, 10 years,” he added. “That is the magic.”