Good morning, readers,
We spent most of yesterday helping our colleagues at the Arizona Agenda explain the role Charlie Kirk played in Arizona politics before he was assassinated on Wednesday.
It’s a great read that will really help you wrap your head around what’s happening right now, and what’s on the political horizon.
We also wanted to touch on how Kirk and his organization, Turning Point, affected Tucson’s political scene.
Kirk’s Tucson ties didn’t run nearly as deep as they did at the state Legislature or Arizona State University, but they show how far his reach extended, even in the deep-blue politics of southern Arizona.
Unless you’re really plugged into politics, you might not have heard of Charlie Kirk until the shocking news of his assassination.
In the solidly Democratic world of Tucson politics, Republican campaigns and right-leaning movements often slip under the radar.
Thousands might turn out for an anti-Trump rally at the city’s only Tesla dealership, but most smaller GOP events echo mainly in online spaces.
That’s why you might not have seen just how much the presence of Kirk and Turning Point was felt throughout Republican politics, including in Tucson.
But if you’ve spent the last eight months horrified by President Donald Trump stoking anti-immigrant sentiments or shaking your head at outrageous bills from Arizona’s far-right lawmakers, Kirk was a key reason why.
He built his following by launching a new political movement on college campuses, often criticizing affirmative action and denigrating the transgender community, along with calling for women to submit to their husbands and the end of the separation of church and state.
That approach won him a massive audience of young Republicans, and many on the right credit him with Trump winning re-election last year.
Turning Point in Tucson
Tucson is no stranger to political violence, and the attempted assassination of then-U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords still lingers as a painful memory for many here.
A similar pain is reverberating through Tucson’s conservative community this week. On Wednesday night, a vigil at Calvary Tucson Church on Tucson’s east side drew a large crowd in memory of the 31-year-old co-founder of Turning Point.
In terms of local political action, Turning Point rallied Republicans against the city’s Proposition 414 election earlier this year.
The measure, which would have increased the city’s sales tax to fund a variety of initiatives, including programs to reduce gun violence and boost community resilience, was easily defeated with the help of Turning Point volunteers.
The political action committee tied to Turning Point didn’t report spending money in the race. Instead, Turning Point focused on a ground game to knock on doors ahead of the mail-in election in March.
Tucson also was included in some of Turning Point’s statewide campaigns, including what Kirk called a targeted “Hispanic outreach campaign” during the 2022 election cycle. His organization rented out seven billboards in the Old Pueblo, urging Tucsonans in English and Spanish to vote Republican, focusing on high gasoline prices.
Former state Sen. Justine Wadsack, who represented the Tucson area’s Legislative District 17 before she lost her re-election bid last year, recently announced she is working at Turning Point. (You might remember she missed a hearing in her own lawsuit last month because she was at a Turning Point event.)
In Congressional District 6, Turning Point volunteers chased ballots in Pima and Pinal counties, helping Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani win re-election last year.
After Kirk was shot, Ciscomani posted on Twitter that he is praying for Kirk’s family and praised his legacy.
“He lit a fire that brought so many young Americans along with him, and his voice for conservative values echoed far beyond Arizona,” Ciscomani wrote.
Active on campus
With Kirk co-founding Turning Point when he was 18, he leaned heavily into using influencers, memes, viral videos and popular t-shirts — including their popular “Socialism Sucks” merch — to get his message out to college students.
The University of Arizona chapter at one point had approximately 70 members, and Pima Community College lists a chapter on one of its campuses.
Kirk also made a splash last year at the UA when his “You’re Being Brainwashed” tour stopped by campus and rallied hundreds of students.
“In times of political division, I feel like joining a side that appeals to me in a moral perspective, it makes a lot more sense,” one student told KGUN.
Since the shooting, Giffords has made multiple posts about Kirk on Twitter and how “like all Americans, he deserved to be safe from gun violence.”
She also posted about Jan. 11 victim Christina-Taylor Green. Yesterday would have been her 24th birthday.
It’s part of the complicated politics that follow the assassination of a high-profile political figure.
If you want to understand those politics, be sure to click on this link and read the in-depth analysis at the Arizona Agenda.
And incidentally, not just through the work of TPAction did Prop 414 go down. ALL of Tucson hated it, as evidenced by its losing spectacularly in almost all precincts. Republicans often if not always vote against raising taxes but it took a significant level of being out of touch with voters for this to lose as badly as it did. At least one council member who stumped for it won his race by a tiny tiny margin that should stand as an affront to his arrogance ( calling his own race early and later claiming that his opponent was " not a democrat") and inability to "read the room" filled by his constituents. Don't give TPAction credit they don't deserve-- Prop 414 was as big a local Democratic political catastrophe as the information coming out about who knew what, when? re the Data center.
I have long wondered about the changes I have seen in Tucson, politically, in the last, say, 10-12 years. I've been here 34 years. I had no idea Kirk had such an influence.