Wife of murdered bigot endorses Vance for 2028

Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the head of right-wing pressure group Turning Point USA, endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president on Thursday night. Turning Point’s history of racist activism falls directly in line with Vance’s bigoted rhetoric in recent years.

Speaking to activists in Phoenix about the 2028 election, Kirk said, “We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected.”

The surprise endorsement comes just a few weeks after Kirk and Vance shared a lingering hug at a Turning Point event that started rumors about the pair.

Charlie Kirk was a bigot who openly promoted racist rhetoric and ideas. During his time leading Turning Point, which he founded, Kirk went after civil rights icons like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr who he called “awful.” Kirk called the 1964 Civil Rights Act an “anti-white weapon” and said Black History Month “deepens” racial wounds.

The history of Turning Point is littered with racist incidents: a field director for the group sent texts saying “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE;” a chapter held an “affirmative action bake sale;” conference attendees discussed what Adolph Hitler got “right;” another chapter sent around “racist memes and rape jokes;” and so on.

The Kirk-Turning Point support of hate meshes well with Vance, who serves in one of the most racist administrations in U.S. history.

During the 2024 campaign, Vance repeated and amplified President Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric accusing Haitian immigrants of eating domestic pets. Vance did this despite being aware that there was no truth to Trump’s accusation.

When a DOGE staffer’s racist writings were exposed and he was pushed out, Vance said in February he should be re-hired.

More recently, in October, Kirk defended a Young Republican group after their chats pushing racist and antisemitic ideas were exposed. The chats made jokes about gas chambers, called Black people monkeys, and posted pro-Nazi commentary.

“I refuse to join the pearl clutching,” Vance wrote in response to the disclosure.

That same month, Vance falsely claimed that hospital benefits were being given to undocumented immigrants and complained that they were “very often a person who can’t even speak English.”

Vance’s bigoted rhetoric makes it clear why Trump put him in charge of purging Smithsonian museums of exhibits that tell the truth about American racism.

To be sure, it is far too early to predict the outcome of the 2028 presidential race but a recent poll pitting Vance against Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may give Erika Kirk second thoughts. The poll from The Argument/Verasight showed Vance losing to Ocasio-Cortez by a margin of 51% to 49%.