Kyle McClenagan
Texas Youth Summit founder and former Republican congressional candidate Christian Collins leads a prayer at a Charlie Kirk vigil on the University of Houston campus on Sept. 11, 2025.
This weekend’s Texas Youth Summit, an annual conference for politically conservative youths, will include a memorial for right-wing activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk that will feature U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and other prominent Republicans.
The first Texas Youth Summit was held in 2019, and since 2023, the event has been hosted at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center located north of Houston. Texas Youth Summit founder and former Republican congressional candidate Christian Collins announced Monday that this year’s event will feature a tribute to Kirk at 6 p.m. Friday.
The summit is scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
“This Friday night, the Texas Youth Summit will gather for worship and to honor the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk — with tributes from his friends Allie Beth Stuckey, Alex Clark, Ted Cruz, and others,” the summit announced in a post on social media. “Our founder, Christian Collins, will share how we can pick up Charlie’s bloody mic and keep fighting the good fight.”
Kirk was assassinated last Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University. He was shot and killed while speaking during a debate hosted by Turning Point USA, a national conservative student organization he led. It’s also a Texas Youth Summit sponsor.
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The Texas Youth Summit also announced this week that Gov. Greg Abbott would be in attendance at the summit. According to the summit’s schedule, Abbott will speak with state Rep. Caroline Harris Davila (R-Round Rock) at 1 p.m. Saturday. Abbott’s press office did not respond to a request for comment about whether he will attend the Kirk tribute on Friday night.
Speaking at a vigil for Kirk last Thursday on the University of Houston campus, Collins said he had met Kirk personally when Kirk attended the 2023 Texas Youth Summit.
“What Charlie Kirk would want is for us to keep fighting the good fight and not give in and to be warriors for truth, because we are in a war in this country,” Collins said. “It may not be the same as fighting a war in Afghanistan, but what we’re in right now is an ideological, cultural war for the heart and soul for our country, and we have to win.”
Despite the identity of the suspected shooter not being known at the time, Collins blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s death.
“But the left didn’t take his life because he spoke freely; they took his life because millions of young people were listening,” Collins said last Thursday. “That’s what the radical left wants, is they want to silence us, and they want us to stop communicating our ideas peacefully and truthfully.”
On Tuesday, authorities charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson with aggravated murder and other crimes in connection to the murder of Kirk. According to the Associated Press, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said Robinson is believed to have targeted Kirk based on Kirk’s political expression.
Along with Abbott, Cruz and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, several other elected and unelected conservative leaders are scheduled to attend the two-day event, according to the summit’s website.