Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk promised to put the organization’s weight behind getting Vice President JD Vance elected as the next president of the United States.
With the spotlight on her as the opening speaker of TPUSA’s AmericaFest on Thursday, Kirk used her speech to highlight the large student attendance in the audience, commit to helping the GOP win its midterm elections, and endorse Vance in the 2028 presidential election.
“We’re going to ensure that President Trump has Congress for all four years. We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” Kirk said.
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Kirk’s support for Vance follows months of speculation from political pundits, as well as President Donald Trump, throwing the vice president’s hat in the ring for 2028. Vance has not yet announced or launched a bid to be the next president.
The four-day AmericaFest event is the first annual conference without Kirk’s late husband and TPUSA founder, Charlie Kirk, since his assassination on Sept. 10. The event will be “a powerful celebration of faith, freedom, and the legacy of our founder, Charlie Kirk,” as the description reads.
Erika Kirk was the first of many conservative voices and Make America Great Again movement leaders to take the stage at this year’s AmericaFest. She will be followed by such speakers as Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Donald Trump Jr., and Vance as the final speaker on Sunday.
She vowed to use Turning Point Action, the political advocacy group of TPUSA, to help win elections across Arizona, Nevada, and New Hampshire. She emphasized her endorsement of Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) to be the next governor of the Grand Canyon State.
“We are locked in and mission-focused for both 2026 and 2028. We’re investing in states and not just in races. So what I mean by that is we are building the red wall — Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire. That’s going to be very important to us,” Erika Kirk said. “And for our hometown, Arizona folks, are you guys in the house, Arizona? ‘Go Biggs or go home,’ is where we’re at right now, mentally.”
Erika Kirk referenced and paid tribute to Charlie Kirk throughout the speech, recounting what she has learned in the three months following his assassination in Orem, Utah. She announced, in honor of her late husband’s love for debate, TPUSA would be picking back up its “Prove Me Wrong” campus tour stops. Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a stop on the tour at Utah Valley University in September.
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“Charlie’s love for debate will always be the DNA of Turning Point USA. We believe in debate because we believe in truth, and we believe in civil discourse because we believe that truth can withstand scrutiny. So that is why we will be launching the ‘Pick Up The Mic’ initiative and getting back on campus for ‘Prove Me Wrongs’ and campus tour events this spring and fall of 2026,” Erika Kirk said.
While Erika Kirk initially navigated the technical difficulties of not having her speech available for the first several minutes of her appearance, she highlighted statistics about the attendees at the event. She remarked that a third of the attendees were students, 54% of attendees were women, and all 50 states and 25 other countries were represented.