This year’s race of Virginia’s governor will test whether anger over Charlie Kirk’s death is zinc to vote for Gen-Z conservatives.
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BLAKESBURG, Va. – Chloe Bolin, 25, lined up for over an hour and had a good seat at the Virginia Tech meeting in Turning Point USA. It may not have happened a few weeks ago that she attended.
Just as many students wait outside, the 25-year-old Bolin first discovered the organization’s co-founder, Charlie Kirk, when his videos began appearing on her Tiktok’s “For You” page a few years ago. A devout Christian, Borin got engrossed in Kirk’s message.
She rarely listened to Kirk’s podcasts, but she didn’t consider herself a lively follower of him. But when she learned that he had been murdered while speaking on a university campus in Utah on September 10th, Bolin said she began crying. She attended a pre-planned Turning Point Tour Stop at Virginia Tech, showing support for Kirk’s faith-based politics.
“Since Charlie passed away, I have felt that I have become brave and have a tendency to say what I think and stand up to what I believe,” Bolin said.
Just as Bolin-Z’s conservatives lament Kirk’s death, many say they’ve been politically galvanized for it — and Republican leaders are seeing an opportunity to capture that energy in the ballot box.
President Donald Trump and the GOP have linked the 31-year-old murder to a broader message casting the Democrats as radical, hateful and violent. Some candidates running in mid-2026 have already called out Kirk’s assassination in campaign ads and fundraising materials.
This year’s Virginia Governor race could be one of the first tests between Republican lige’s Winsam Earl Sears and Democrat Abigail Spanberger, whether that strategy will work to promote young voter turnout.
Tilt the scale
Bob Holsworth, a longtime Virginia political analyst, described the Turning Point USA rally at Virginia Tech as an “effort for Republicans to do what they failed in most previous elections.” “It’s about mobilizing young people on university campuses,” he said.
The exit vote from the 2020 presidential election showed then-Democrat candidate Joe Biden, who led Trump among voters aged 18-29 in Virginia. A poll conducted by Atlas Intel two days before the 2024 presidential election showed Harris had just 3% won a group of the same people in the state.
Kirk played a pivotal role in helping Republicans bridge the gap between younger voters in 2024. Turning Point led the effort that was sent off in December 2024, believing that the organization and Kirk helped them achieve the victory.
Adam Pennings, executive director of Run Gen Z, a nonprofit supporting young conservative candidates, said he hopes Kirk’s death will lead to “higher voter turnout, political involvement and more young conservatives.”
Students are still unlikely to vote except for the president.
But so far, Kirk’s death has not shaken up this year‘Race for the governor of Virginia.
Back in 1977, Virginia elected the opposition governor as president for all election cycles except 2013. Democrats support winning this year’s race.
Polls from early September to mid-September show Spanberger, a former CIA operative, is about 10 points ahead of his Republican opponents. Of voters ages 18-29, Spanberger registered 20% more support than Earl Sears, according to a September 18 survey by Christopher Newport University a few days after Kirk’s death.
Nearly 40,000 students are participating in Virginia Tech. Less than 3,000 people filled the maroon sheets in the auditorium where Turning Point held the event.
As they waited for them to enter the building, some of Kirk’s most enthusiastic supporters looked indifferent towards the upcoming off-year elections as they asked if Turning Point Action volunteers were registered to the poll.
Most of the students, covered in American great hats and t-shirts decorated on Kirk’s face, ignored the registration query and continued chatting with friends.
Many USA Today students said they were excited to vote in the 2028 presidential election, but it was still unclear whether they would vote this year or in the midterm of 2026.
Bolin, who is studying for a doctorate in veterinary medicine, said he never thought he was politically involved and had voted for president in the past.
Kirk’s death encouraged her to speak more positively about her beliefs. But Bolin, who is from Ohio, said he still doesn’t know if he’ll vote in future local and state elections. She chose not to register with Virginia, saying she didn’t know much about the candidate.
“I don’t want to vote for Republicans,” she said.
Even among students who said they were going to vote in the Virginia governor election, few knew the candidate’s name.
“I’m probably going to vote for a Republican. What’s her name?” Landon Pond, 20, from Front Royal, Virginia, added that he will support a candidate supported by current Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin.
I’m looking towards the future
Coby Dalton, 18, said he was going to vote for Earl Sears as he smashed under his feet and matched her on most issues, including moral opposition to abortion.
But Dalton, a native of Radford, Virginia, was more concerned about Kirk’s legacy.
“Everyone is very divided when it comes to politics,” he said. Kirk often embraced divisive rhetoric, but Dalton said he praised the activists as “very civil.”
For Youngkin, one of the two speakers at the Turning Point event, the short-term impact of Kirk’s death on GOP politics seemed far from the point.
Youngkin did not mention the upcoming Virginia election in his one-hour long speech. He stood next to Kirk’s hat and shirt, encouraging participants to openly discuss their politics and faith, as the 31-year-old activist had.
“It’s easy to get a flash of bread in the moment, and the hard part is to endure,” Youngkin told the crowd. “Looking long term, and not immediately satisfied, but doing work that will affect a year, five or ten years,” he added. “That’s magic.”
