TPUSA honors Charlie Kirk one year after death
One year after the murder of their leader, Charlie Kirk, the Troy chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) held a memorial in the Trojan Center ballrooms to celebrate the legacy he left for them.
The event was less of a somber memorial and more of a positive look at the impact Kirk had on the organization. As a group that built themselves off their Christian faith, Troy’s TPUSA Vice President Mary Russell, a sophomore criminal justice major from Prattville, Alabama, said they aren't destroyed that he's gone because they know they'll get to see him again.
"Charlie being killed was not the end of his life," Russel said. "Right now, he’s up in heaven with God, and we know that one day we’re going to see him again as his brothers and sisters in Christ.”
Though they believe his soul is not lost, TPUSA at Troy acknowledges the impact that Kirk and his death had on their organization – positive and negative. According to Troy TPUSA's President Vivian Chamberlin, a junior global business major from Ozark, Alabama, the past year started off strong but recently the group has seen a decline.
"A lot of the students who had originally stepped up after Charlie died are a little more scared to come forth like they were," Chamberlin said. "Right after Charlie died, we had exponential growth.
“We had a lot of people who first joined the organization, and now, it seems people have kind of went back into their political shells.
They don’t want to talk about their political standings anymore."
The memorial featured speeches from leadership, a sermon from the Baptist Campus Ministries pastor, and a prayer. Russel said they want to focus on positivity rather than anger or violence.
"There is so much violence in this political climate right now, and so just being the peace in the animosity and the violence is really what we try to strive for," Russell said.
The events of September 10, 2025, don’t just affect members of TPUSA. Troy College Democrats President Nathaniel Bliss, a senior anthropology major from Columbia, Tennessee, holds firm that his organization sees no place for violence in politics.
"Political violence is not healthy for a functioning democracy; it is not a good way to solve what problems you think you may have," Bliss said. "It just leads to more issues, more trouble."
The man accused of killing Kirk, 23-year-old Tyler Robinson, pled not guilty on Sept. 1 of this year. His next court date is set for Oct. 23.
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