Republicans hope Erika Kirk can bring more young women into the party

Before meeting Charlie in 2018, Kirk worked in real estate, started a faith-based clothing company and appeared on Bravo’s “Summer House.” She later wrote on Instagram that she had turned down a full-time role on the show to focus on her law studies. As her family grew – she is the mother of two young children, ages 1 and 3 – she hosted a podcast and did speaking engagements.

Jaylin Pedicord, 25, attended Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in Arizona with her young family, who came from the Phoenix area. She told NBC News that she identified with Erika when she heard Charlie Kirk describe his wife as the more conservative of the two.

“I hope Erika will use her platform to help young girls be bolder in their conservative views,” she said at the service while breastfeeding her 7-month-old daughter.

Ashley January, visiting from Kansas, said how much she admired Kirk, not only as a mother and wife, but also as “Charlie’s equal” and as someone who could draw crowds of his own accord.

“Charlie has been talking to some young men, but Erika will bring the ‘Honey, we’re going to go to this event because I want to,'” January said while holding her 7-month-old son.

Like others, January said she thinks Kirk could reach a demographic that Republicans have struggled to win over: younger women.

“Look at this place. It’s packed,” said Deana Ruiz, there with her husband and son, scanning the stadium floor filled with families of all ages and young women. “My heart breaks for her. I want to support her.”

Bruesewitz, the Kirk family friend, was an adviser to Trump’s 2024 campaign, crafting the strategy that brought Trump’s message into the podcast sphere, where it resonated with young male voters.

He said that while the party was “already making progress” in reaching young women, with Kirk as a visible example, she could really help make conservative principles more approachable and accessible.

“Erika will be an incredible role model,” he said, adding that her decision to prioritize her family over her career was a key part of that. “It’s a breath of fresh air.”

But reaching a broader sample of Gen Z women will require more than just focusing on family and motherhood.

“What [Charlie] Kirk’s success with men was to normalize being conservative,” said Landon Wall, a Republican political consultant and founder of the GrayHouse poll. “He normalized being conservative on certain issues that were too controversial to discuss in public, and he made young men either comfortable feeling those things or comfortable saying those things and voting on their behalf.”

Wall said there was a need for a similar strategy targeting young women.

“It has to start culturally before it starts politically,” he said. “I don’t think Republicans can, in a vacuum, sell their message to young women and expect it to work.”

NBC News’ recent Decision Desk poll found that young men and women are evenly divided in how they define success, with young men who voted for Trump placing family as their top marker of success and young women who voted for Kamala Harris placing her second to last. The women who voted for Trump put him in the middle.

That was Charlie’s most important message, Erika said in a moving speech two days ago. after her death, speaking of how her husband “told all these young people to come find their future spouse, to become wives, husbands and parents.”

She said that “he wanted everyone to bring heaven to this Earth through the love and joy that comes from raising a family.”

One of the problems, Hill said, is that young men and women “seem to be talking over each other.”

“They’re both looking for each other and they haven’t been able to find this,” he added.

In an interview with NBC News, Kolvet, a spokesperson for Turning Point USA, echoed the idea that Kirk could play a similar role for young women that her late husband had for men. But he said it could also bring young people together.

“What Charlie meant to young men, Erika has the ability to mean to young women,” he said. “You can see how much love they shared in his family and as a couple. It’s a great example that young people can aspire to and something that I hope can bring healing to what has been a conflicted relationship between men and women.”

Some indicators suggest that a change may be underway. A poll by the progressive firm Catalist found that young voters were sharply divided in favor of Democrats during the 2008 recession and during Barack Obama’s presidency. In 2024, it returned to a more egalitarian level not seen since 2004. (Harris won voters under 30 by 11 points, compared to Joe Biden’s 24 points four years earlier.)

“Their strongly Democratic leaning is not a permanent feature of our politics; instead, cohorts of voters tend to politicize depending on the political environment in their late teens and early 20s,” Catalist wrote.

This spring, a Yale youth poll found that young Americans ages 18 to 21 now favor the Republicans by 12 points.

“Young people, however, are not as attached to their party as older people, so their party affiliation is more fluid,” said Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin. “They must continue to be won over.”

The turning point transition

For Erika Kirk and Turning Point, the transition could take time, some Trump allies say. Charlie Kirk was recognized among Republicans as a singular figure who made Turning Point a powerhouse on the right. That influence extended well beyond his public persona and beyond the organization’s campus debates and high-profile events, which attracted Trump as a speaker on the heels of his election victory last year.

Kolvet said Turning Point USA sees significant opportunities in the coming months.

“We have it back 100%,” he said.

In an interview with The New York Times in late September — the only one she has given to an outlet outside of the Turning Point network — Kirk said Trump agreed to be a sounding board for her, just as he was for her husband. She is also close to prominent figures in the White House; second lady Usha Vance and Vice President JD Vance accompanied her home from Utah, carrying her husband’s casket on the vice president’s plane.

JD Vance credited Charlie Kirk with significant influence in his political career, describing him as a key figure in both his 2022 Senate campaign in Ohio and his selection as Trump’s running mate last year. Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization also launched a massive get-out-the-vote operation in key states that Trump said helped him win over young voters.

This machine is poised to act as a force in the next election if Turning Point maintains its influence. It raised nearly $85 million in its fiscal year that ended in June 2024, according to its most recent IRS filing, along with millions more that went to affiliated nonprofit groups.

Kiersten Pels, press secretary for the Republican National Committee, said the importance of Turning Point would continue and that broader cultural change since Trump’s election, including a revival of faith, would be accelerated under Erika Kirk’s leadership.

“We fully support Erika Kirk as she advances Charlie’s vision during this next chapter of Turning Point,” Pels said. “We know that the movement he started will grow and thrive under his leadership. Erika’s commitment to faith, family and freedom is inspiring, and it is clear that Charlie’s incredible legacy is in good hands.”

Still, it’s unclear what Charlie’s replacement will mean, and some donors are taking a wait-and-see approach.

“I think it’s a mistake to believe that anyone, especially Erika, knows for sure how Charlie’s shoes will be filled at this point,” said a MAGA-aligned Republican consultant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly.

Kolvet said the “enthusiasm, both from a grassroots activism perspective and from a donor perspective, has been incredibly encouraging and overwhelming.”

“This is for both large donors and small dollar donations, and we are incredibly grateful,” he added.

Charlie Kirk’s vision of attracting young voters on college campuses to join the Republican Party was also once considered an uncertain bet. When Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke at the memorial, he joked about Charlie’s seemingly impossible task when he set out to influence young voters. “I said, ‘College campuses, you’re going to do this? Why don’t you start somewhere easier, like, say, communist Cuba?'” he said.

Still, Kirk’s strategy paid off, and Trump ultimately won a larger share of voters under 30 than any Republican presidential candidate since 2008.

“Charlie Kirk came and converted young men,” Tyler Bowyer, a Turning Point executive, wrote on X. “Erika Kirk comes and converted young women.”