Controversial conservative media personality Charlie Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday during a speaking event at Utah Valley University. Kirk, who was 31, rose to fame for his debates with college students and for being a close supporter of President Donald Trump. He visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus last fall on a debate tour.
Kirk additionally appeared near campus in late October 2024 at a tailgate hosted in conjunction with the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. The Kollege Klub also hosted The Nelk Boys, a rightwing podcast group who promoted Kirk as a guest, but he did not attend.
Kirk visited Library Mall at UW-Madison as part of his “You’re Being Brainwashed” tour, which had planned stops at college campuses across the country last September. Turning Point USA, the conservative youth activist organization founded by Kirk in 2012, advertised the tour as a means to “empower and educate college students with the principles and tools they need to challenge left-wing indoctrination on college campuses.”
Over 100 people crowded around Kirk’s tent to hear him debate students and community members at UW-Madison, and roughly 150 voters were registered during the event, according to Turning Point Action Harley Field Representative Sadie Roach.
Multiple chalk drawings were spotted around the UW-Madison campus after Kirk's death was announced by Trump.
Kirk is one of several social media figures associated with the growing conservatism among college-aged men.
“We are saddened to learn that Charlie Kirk, a father, husband and founder of TPUSA, was seriously wounded by a gunshot to the neck while speaking to students at Utah Valley University,” the UW-Madison College Republicans wrote in a press release Wednesday. “His work has injected life into the conservative movement and made free thinkers on campus feel that they are not alone.”
The Wednesday event in Utah was the first stop on Kirk’s “American Comeback” tour, where Kirk visited college campuses to “equip students with tools to push back against leftwing indoctrination in academia and reclaim their right to free speech.” UW-Madison was not one of the stops.
“We are disgusted to hear about the shooting of Charlie Kirk,” the UW-Madison College Democrats wrote in a statement on Instagram. “Political violence has no role in democracy, and it must be denounced in the strongest terms possible.”
The shooting comes months after the assassination of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband in her home in Minneapolis. Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were also shot, though both survived the attack. In July 2024, a gunman attempted to kill then-candidate Donald Trump during a Pennsylvania rally. Last fall, Kirk blamed female hiring initiatives in the Secret Service for the assassination attempt on Trump.
Trump has ordered all U.S. flags to be lowered to half-staff through Sunday in response to Kirk’s death.
Annika Bereny is the campus news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as the special pages editor. As a staff writer, she's written in-depth on campus news specializing in protest policy, free speech and historical analysis. She has also written for state and city news. She is a History and Journalism major. Follow her on Twitter at @annikabereny.
Ella Hanley is the college news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as associate news editor and wrote for the city and state news desks. She is a fourth-year journalism and criminal justice student. She has written breaking news and in-depth on Trump administration funding cuts to UW-Madison and local Madison people and organizations. Her work reporting on Yung Gravy has been featured in the New York Times. Follow her on Twitter at @ellamhanley.
