UC Santa Barbara’s Turning Point USA chapter held a vigil on Sept. 26 for Charlie Kirk. During an event at Utah Valley University, a gunman assassinated the right-wing conservative influencer on Sept. 10.
President of UCSB’s Turning Point Chapter Joshua Medeiros spoke about the personal impact Kirk had on his life. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
Kirk was a prominent figure in the Make America Great Again movement and a strong ally of President Donald Trump. In 2012 he, alongside Bill Montgomery, founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a conservative non-profit organization with chapters in high schools, colleges and universities across the country that advocate for traditional conservative values and Christian nationalism.
Kirk often hosted events on college campuses, debating students and advocating on behalf of his beliefs, most notably arguing against abortion rights, gun control, LGBTQIA+ rights and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. He also commonly spread white supremacist propaganda known as the great replacement, he promoted COVID-19 medical misinformation and voiced criticism of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
With around 150 people seated in Campbell Hall, which the University offered as an option over required security presence according to UCSB media spokesperson Kiki Reyes, the vigil began with a bagpiper who played “Amazing Grace”. Organizers then played a remembrance video from TPUSA’s YouTube channel that highlighted his impact on the contemporary conservative movement.
President of UCSB’s Turning Point Chapter, third-year history of public policy and law major Joshua Medeiros, spoke about the personal impact Kirk had on his life after he heard him speak on campus in 2023. Medeiros said Kirk opened him up to Christ, commended Kirk’s commitment to “peaceful open dialogue” and said Kirk was “one of the most gifted minds [he’d] ever witnessed.” He then led the audience in a prayer from John 15:13 before introducing Pentecostal Preacher Keith Hudson and his wife, Mary Hudson, to deliver a sermon.
Keith Hudson preached a sermon dedicated to Kirk and warned the audience that we are living in “end times.” Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
Mary Hudson began by expressing her gratitude at being able to meet Kirk last month where Kirk argued that “we cannot support Islam in the United States of America, because they don’t come to assimilate, they come to conquer.”
“I told him I really felt in my heart that we should all pray Psalms 91 over him, Psalms of protection you know: ‘he that dwells in the secret place of the most high God shall abide in the shadow of the almighty.’ And I could see that he was visibly a little shaken by that, that he had been anticipating an attack against him,” Mary Hudson said.
Keith Hudson then began his sermon, expressing his sadness over the loss of Kirk, and said he was one of many “great men of God” who have been lost. He continued by warning the audience that we are living in “the end times,” and Christians and conservatives will see more attacks on their beliefs and faith. Keith Hudson ended his sermon with a group prayer.
Dylan Wakayama, former UCSB College Republicans president and current statewide deputy director of California College Republicans, was next to speak. Between sharing two Bible verses, Matthew 5:13 and 1 Corinthians 11:1, Wakayama said Kirk “was able to start an earthquake in which he won hearts, won minds and won souls for our God and our Lord.”
Wakayama praised Kirk’s faith and pointed to it as the solution for problems in America.
“We have a country to save, and all of us have a part in that,” Wakayama said. “Now more than ever, have courage, be the salt, the light and God’s imitators and disciples on Earth.”
Afterwards, Christy Lozano spoke on behalf of Santa Barbara County Republicans and praised Kirk’s argumentative abilities and work as a Christian.
“He listened and he responded with incredible knowledge, insight and wisdom. He truly had a gift for getting to the core beliefs in people and undoing them,” Lozano said. “I believe what Charlie was doing was very biblical and a gift from God.”
Lozano also called for forgiveness while remembering Kirk. “The devil’s biggest enemy is forgiveness, because it brings us together,” Lozano said. “Charlie was a true soldier in the army of Christ. He sacrificed his time, his talent, his treasure and ultimately his life.”
The vigil then opened up for public comment, in which audience members, many of whom did not identify themselves, spoke to the impact Kirk had on them and the influence his death is having for the “revival” in the U.S.
“[Kirk] had a phenomenal intellect, he could actually keep his emotions to the side and speak what? Truth. Where do we get the truth? The Bible,” the second speaker said.
The third speaker, a rideshare driver who often drives UCSB students, recounted the effect Kirk’s visit to UCSB in 2023 had on many of the young men in Isla Vista.
“After Charlie was here, a lot of the young men felt it was okay to become masculine. They don’t have to hide it anymore,” the third speaker said. “A lot of them come from radicalized leftist families that are seeking a different way.”
Charles DiMauro, founder of 805 Patriots, a local conservative event organization behind many political motorcades, spoke next. While DiMauro founded 805 Patriots before meeting Kirk, he said he was inspired by Kirk to make his organization what it is today.
“Meeting Charlie pushed me a little farther than basically seeing what Turning Point was, and hopefully see if I could somewhat turn my organization to somewhere as close as possible to his,” DiMauro said in an interview with the Nexus. “[The] main reason I built my organization was to make everyone else stand up for their beliefs: God, Jesus, Trump, our country,” DiMauro said in his speech.
The last two speakers of the night were Mark Lucas and Ben Corbett, two former TPUSA UCSB chapter presidents who organized Kirk’s visit to UCSB in 2023. Corbett recounted meeting Kirk and his contribution to the resurgence of conservatism and Christianity.
“At the end of the day, [Kirk] spread the gospel. He has spurred this revival,” Corbett said. “The enemy has no idea what they did by killing Charlie Kirk. The enemy has no idea because the type of revival that we are seeing is unlike anything I think any of us have ever seen.”
When Corbett was finished, the bagpiper rounded the hall, stopping briefly on stage to face the projection of Kirk. Corbett then came back on stage to offer a “call to Jesus” during which one front row audience member stood while Corbett prayed for him.
Josef Masser, a local high school senior who attended the vigil, talked in an interview about Kirk and the goals of the Conservative movement he left behind.
“Charlie Kirk and his organization, Turning Point, has been really relatable to young people, and I’ve seen that it’s really an effective strategy,” Masser said. “I’d like to see a return to traditional values in the United States, and I would also like to see more respect for what this country was built off of. So the Constitution, biblical values, that kind of thing.”
TPUSA organizers declined the request for an interview.
A version of this article appeared on p. 4 of the Oct. 2, 2025 print edition of the Daily Nexus
