Republicans fold Charlie Kirk into their midterm messaging

Charlie Kirk was a master of Republican communications. His death may be central to the party’s messaging in the midterm elections.

The GOP, facing the headwinds of incumbency as the party fights to hold its slim majorities in Congress, plans to use the conservative activist’s killing as a way to motivate its base to show up to the polls — and bash Democrats as radical and lawless.

“Charlie Kirk created a movement, and that movement made Donald Trump the president of the United States and it made me the vice president of the United States,” Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday during a rally in a Michigan swing district, where he emphasized Kirk’s influence on the White House’s marquee tax and spending law and pushed the crowd to vote for Republicans in 2026.

Vance was in Michigan to tout that legislation’s tax cuts, but before he did so, the vice president honored his friend Kirk and asked young members of his organization, Turning Point USA, to stand up behind him.

“Over the past 10 years, Turning Point USA has not just been an organization, it has been the fountain of a movement all across the United States of America,” Vance said.

Republicans plan to fold Kirk’s killing into their broader messaging that accuses Democrats of being ideologically radical and soft on crime, according to two Republican operatives working on midterm campaign strategy .And while Republicans have long sought to portray themselves as the party of law and order, Kirk’s death as well as the slaying of 23-year old Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian woman stabbed to death on a train, offer the Trump administration specific examples of graphic violence caught on camera that can boost their case that the country is becoming increasingly violent and in need of their protection.

Their law-and-order appeal comes despite the fact that homicide has declined significantly since 2020 across the country and the overall rate of violent crime in the U.S. is far below what it was in the 1980s and 1990s, when the GOP also used the issue to drive voters to the polls.

Vance, who oversees GOP midterm fundraising as the Republican National Committee’s finance chair, on Friday told donors in closed-door remarks that it was the party’s duty to win the midterm elections to honor Kirk, according to a person in the room granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations.

“The emphasis that I've seen has been on continuing [Kirk’s] fight, picking up where he left off, not letting the movement that he really started — especially going to all these college campuses, talking to young voters — not letting that die,” said Kiersten Pels, the RNC’s national press secretary.

Pels said the RNC intends to highlight violence that it says originates among “extreme far-left groups, but then is also making its way into the language of some of these Democrat leaders.”

It taps into rhetoric that Trump and his top aides have used, blaming the shooting on the “radical left” and pledging to go after a network of progressive non-governmental organizations Vance on Monday said “foments, facilitates and engages in violence.”

“The crime issue is definitely one that we've been playing the harp on for a while,” said Will Kiley, communications director at the National Republican Congressional Committee. He said the House GOP’s campaign arm and the White House are “working together very closely” and are “in sync on how we talk about many issues.”

Kiley cited videos of cars on fire during protests in Los Angeles and House Democrats who voted against Washington crime bills. The GOP, he said, would “be tying it all together in terms of a larger narrative talking about Democrats being seemingly okay with crime.”

On Wednesday, a key Republican super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, blasted around quotes from elected Democrats calling Republicans threats or fascists, accusing the party of doubling down on bombastic language in the wake of Kirk’s death.

Both Republicans and Democrats have been targets of increasing instances of political violence. Trump was twice targeted by would-be assassins during the 2024 presidential campaign. In June, Democratic Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in their home. And earlier this year, Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home was set ablaze while his family was celebrating Passover.

Kirk’s killing appears to be motivating young Republicans who have vowed to continue his mission. The 31-year-old activist focused on youth engagement on college campuses, and Vance on Wednesday credited him for the rightward shift among Generation Z.

Since Kirk’s death, Turning Point USA has received more than 54,000 requests from high school and college students to start new chapters or otherwise get involved, the organization said Tuesday.