Will Deaton received an unexpected text last Wednesday.

A friend messaged him: “They shot Charlie Kirk.”

Deaton, a senior at Hillsdale College in Michigan, stopped walking, stunned. 

Immediately, he opened X to check headlines. 

There, he found a feed filled with the news on Kirk’s shooting. 

Deaton started praying as he walked to his next meeting, hoping that the man who had a tremendous impact on his life would survive.

But after his meeting, he learned that the 31-year-old father of two had died, and Deaton was overwhelmed by sadness. 

“It probably felt that way because people have said some crazy things back home. I restarted our Republican precinct. I’ve been called a traitor, so I just personalized the shooting,” Deaton told the Register. “Charlie was a peaceful man, and he kept calling for peace. He was just a good man who had a huge impact on me and a lot of other young people.” 

Deaton was far from alone in his heartfelt reaction. Across the country, college students are grieving and grappling with the assassination of Kirk, a popular conservative influencer, particularly among young adults. 

Kirk built his company, Turning Point USA, for young people, hoping to inspire the next generation of conservative politicians, activists and influencers. Relying on flashy, loud events, engaging social-media posts, and his “Prove Me Wrong” slogan during college campus debates, Kirk built a massive following among young people.

Kirk inspired young adults like Ted Welsch, a sophomore at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, to be more vocal about their values. 

“I really took notice with Charlie Kirk because his message was specifically aimed at college campus students,” Welsch said. "I thought that if this guy can promote this type of civil debate that really shaped the West and shaped American culture, and he’s still fighting for it, I can do the same.” 

“Charlie would have these open conversations about controversial stuff, but he did it in a way that was so nice, so eye-opening. It was so Aristotelian. There was no violence,” Welsch continued. “It was all very civil.”

For his part, Deaton discovered Kirk right before his family moved to rural Alaska. His parents were engaged in politics, yet Deaton found it difficult to understand the crux of the civic discussion.

Kirk made politics not only accessible for Deaton, but also enjoyable, speaking in his signature style with his evangelical Christian perspective, and leaving listeners feeling inspired and empowered. 

“I knew that Charlie Kirk, being a Christian man, would be rooted and grounded, and I could look to him for guidance,” Deaton said. 

Deaton listened to Kirk every day in high school. By the time he turned 18, Kirk had inspired him to become engaged in local politics and pursue a degree in politics at Hillsdale. 

“I looked to Charlie Kirk as an inspiration because he was trying to get young people involved in politics,” Deaton said. “When I turned 18, I reorganized the Republican precinct in my community, Cordova, Alaska, and started to hold regular meetings with all of the conservative adults that I could get to come. I got them to go to school board meetings and City Council meetings. Throughout this time, I was listening, on a pretty regular basis, to Charlie Kirk.” 

While Kirk was followed closely by many young men, a wide array of women, including Madeline Landry, a junior at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, were also drawn to his content and personality. 

“I am a very straightforward person; I like truth and honesty. Kirk was definitely one of those people, and now that I am preparing to enter the workforce, and in college, people will try to test you and ask you questions, and you really must have answers prepared,” Landry said. “Listening to him speak and watching how he approaches certain questions taught me the importance of being able to communicate and being grounded in my faith.”

Growing up, Katerina Balick, who graduated this May from Franciscan University, was uninterested in politics. 

Then she discovered Kirk, who showed her that young people do have a role in the political sphere. 

“I grew up in a family that was very engaged in politics, but I didn’t have a lot of interest in it. It was the thing that my parents and my grandparents loved to talk about, and I just found politics boring,” Balick said. “When I found Charlie Kirk and his work and how he would go out to college campuses and engage young people, I felt like this is something that I can get excited about as a young person.” 

While many encountered Kirk through his social-media content, Kirk frequently visited college campuses and spoke at events — just as he did last week at Utah Valley University, engaging students in discussion before he was assassinated. 

Those who heard him or met him described him as a genuine guy and admired his willingness to meet fans. 

Deaton had the chance to meet Kirk at a Turning Point college event in 2021, where he shared with the influencer that he was a fan from the Last Frontier. 

“He was really kind, and he genuinely seemed actually interested in my life and the fact that I was from Alaska,” Deaton said. “It was like that with every person in line: He wanted to have a real conversation and have a real moment,” he added, before describing Kirk as “kind and invested.” 

Landry saw Kirk this past summer while attending Turning Point’s Young Women Leadership Summit, which was focused on faith and family. There, Kirk spoke about his own marriage. 

“He gave this beautiful talk with his wife Erika about marriage,” Landry said. “Hearing this news about his death was so heartbreaking, and it’s really sad because she really loved him, and you could totally see that on stage.” 

“He did not put on a fake persona; you could really tell that they really loved each other,” Landry added.

Through his podcast, videos and social-media content, Kirk had a significant influence on many young adults’ political views. Even more so, many felt like they personally knew the influencer. Thus, when they heard news of the shooting and his subsequent death, they took the news particularly hard. 

“We were in shock. We were sad. We were scared,” Welsch said. 

That sadness remains as students wrestle with Kirk’s tragic death — and worry about the long-term impacts his killing will have on the U.S. as online vitriol continues apace. 

“On Wednesday, I was very numb, Thursday I was really sad, and I’m angry today,” Landry admitted. “With all the news coming out about the shooter, something doesn’t seem right to me about it. Why would this happen; what is his motive? I am just weary about what I see online right now, and I’m waiting for more information to come out.” 

Hope remains, though, as young people believe that Kirk’s death will inspire young adults to be more vocal about their views and promote civil dialogue in the public sphere, even as they wrestle with uncertainty about the future of American politics, fearing more political violence will follow, or that they will be persecuted for their views. 

“I really hope that people take this as a wake-up call,” Balick said. “News agencies are talking about the different things that he stood for, like free speech, and I really hope that people take that to heart, and I hope that young people continue his mission. I really hope that people aren’t afraid to speak out.” 

For now, they know the answer is turning to prayer. 

“I hope and I pray for peace. I want justice to be served, and I want that in a real way,” Deaton said. “I am very angry that this is happening, especially to people on my side. But then again, at daily Mass the day after the shooting, the Gospel reading was all about forgiveness, and it was about mercy.”