Erika Kirk is no handmaiden

Contrary to the claims of his critics, Charlie Kirk did not marry a handmaiden. A 2012 Miss Arizona USA, NCAA basketball player and current doctoral student, Erika Kirk also has her own ministry, podcast and clothing line. And now Turning Point USA has named her as its new CEO.

Fighting the caricature of the left, Erika, like so many strong conservative women whom Charlie championed, is highly educated, accomplished and articulate. A veritable army of these women, including Riley Gaines, Candace Owens and Alex Clark, has spoken out in the days since Charlie’s assassination to describe his impact on their lives and leadership trajectories. Charlie Kirk was no misogynist; he supported conservative women just as he inspired conservative men.

At Charlie’s memorial service on Sunday, Erika took to the stage not only to remember her fallen husband, but also to assure an anxious nation she was more than ready to take up the reins of his organization. She spoke of the horror of having to identify his body, the loving collaboration of their marriage and her passion for carrying on her martyred husband’s mission. Most of all, she spoke of their shared Christian faith that carried her even when her voice fell to a whisper. She exhorted the more than 200,000 people who flooded the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and countless millions watching on television.

“My husband, Charlie. He wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life. Our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ That man. That young man. I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did… What Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love.”

Erika Kirk’s ability to forgive the gravest sin committed against her family, to show grace to the undeserving and to speak out courageously just eleven days after the greatest shock of her young life tells us everything we need to know about her strength, her vision and most of all, her character. Through Erika, we also have come to learn so much more about her beloved Charlie, the husband who truly saw this remarkable woman as an equal partner.

In the days after Charlie’s murder, at least half of a deeply polarized nation asked who would take up his mantle. He was the voice of a generation and a born leader who roused conservative young people all across America into political action. Forty-eight hours after his shocking assassination on a college campus in Orem, Utah, Erika stood in the gap for her slain husband. Delivering a powerful speech, she said the “evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done. They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith and of God’s merciful love. They should all know this: If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before… You had no idea what you have just unleashed across this entire country, in this world.”

America responded to Erika in full force. The organization Charlie founded at age 18, Turning Point USA, was flooded with 18,000 new chapter requests in the 24 hours after she spoke. By week’s end, that number had risen to 62,000. Supporters raised nearly $5 million for Erika and the two young Kirk children. Notably, no riots ensued in the aftermath of the assassination. Instead, inspired by his stoic widow, Americans held prayer vigils.

Against the relentless noise of the cancel culture, Charlie Kirk taught us how to live in the land of the free. In the face of unfathomable evil, Erika Kirk is teaching us how to respond to death in the home of the brave.