Good afternoon. Andrew here. On Wednesday, I sat down with Erika Kirk, who took on the mantle of leading Turning Point USA, the influential right-wing political organization, after the assassination of her husband, Charlie Kirk. Below, we’ve got a rundown of some of the highlights from that discussion. Over the coming days, we’ll be sending you emails with excerpts and takeaways from the interviews. You can also watch all of my conversations from the DealBook Summit on YouTube or listen to them as podcasts. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.)
What Erika Kirk said at the DealBook SummitErika Kirk was appointed C.E.O. and chair of the board for Turning Point USA after the September 2025 assassination of her husband, Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and Turning Point USA’s founder. At the DealBook Summit last week, she discussed the future of the Republican Party and her role at Turning Point. She also sought to portray her husband as a figure who promoted healthy dialogue, even though he had long faced criticism for derogatory and incendiary remarks. Here is a highlight from the interview, which has been condensed and edited for clarity. Andrew: Ezra Klein wrote, in an opinion article in The New York Times, following Charlie’s murder, that you can dislike much of what Kirk believed, but that he was practicing politics in the right way. And that a taste for disagreement is a virtue in a democracy. My question to you, and I actually remember talking to Charlie about this, is about the idea of what debate is: How open was he, or all of us, really to debate? How often do you think in the context of a debate he would change his mind? Erika Kirk: Oh, he would say it. He would say, you know, I haven’t thought about that. Or you know what, I need to look into that. He would say it. And to him, debate wasn’t about emotion. I mean, everyone has an opinion. Debate to him was facts. It was, OK, I understand you feel this way, but why do you feel that way? That was the form, and the art of true debate is not there as much as it used to be. And that’s why I think it’s so powerful to make sure we even bring that back on college campuses. Charlie once said that he’s a moderate compared to you. What does that mean? We both had very similar viewpoints on everything. I think it just boils down to when we got married. He was a little libertarian on some points. Forgive me if I don’t have them off the top of my head. But when we got married, I saw him become more — he was always conservative — but more conservative because when you become a father and when you become a parent, you’re realizing that you’re living for someone and something so much bigger than yourself. You’re living for your family’s legacy, you’re living for your kids, you’re living for your future grandchildren. WATCH: Erika Kirk on Why She Forgave Her Husband’s Killer LISTEN: Erika Kirk Discusses her Role Leading Turning Point And that’s why he would tell so many young people, Get married and have children. And it wasn’t because he was trying to be misogynistic or anything from that nature. He was saying it because he loved being married and he loved our babies. I’ve got a question for you on that topic. I work with a number of fabulous female reporters, and we were talking about this interview coming up. You have urged women not to delay having families. And a number of them said, Please ask her how we should think about your career now that you’re going to be taking over Turning Point and balancing family. There really is no such thing as balance. There’s always going to be give and take. But what this grieving process has taught me is that there really is no blueprint for what I’m going through. It’s really a one-of-one type of situation. And it’s interesting when you view how pain can be morphed into a form of purpose that you see will outlive you. It puts into perspective that this isn’t about me; this isn’t about my life. This is about the legacy my husband left behind, but it’s also about how we’re fighting the good fight for our country.
Thanks for reading! We’ll see you tomorrow. We’d like your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com.
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