Without Charlie Kirk, there could not be a vice president JD Vance.
The outstanding conservative activist, who was killed on Wednesday while talking on a university campus in Utah, was integral in the rise of Vance in national politics since the first days.
Publicly, Kirk announced to Vance as a dignified republican perspective, even when others in a party dominated by President Donald Trump had suspicions about Vance’s past-skeptical.
And, behind the scene, Kirk was a married, connecting Vance with others that would be invaluable to help him navigate a Maga Movement Outsider course to Insider.
Then, when the news of Kirk’s death landed on Wednesday afternoon, he landed particularly hard for Vance.
The vice president, in a last minute decision that stressed how close they were, canceled the plans on Thursday to attend a commemorative ceremony of September 11 in New York and, on the other hand, went to Salt Lake City, where he and the second lady Usha Vance would meet with Kirk’s family and friends.
From there, the two air force was expected to transport the Kirk coffin, along with his family, to Phoenix, said a source familiar with the plans to NBC News. Kirk had based his political organization, Turning Point USA, there.
“Charlie was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind,” Vance wrote in a tribute similar to the eulogy he published on Wednesday night in X. “Like me, he was skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016. Like me, he came to see President Trump as the only figure capable of moving US politics away from globalism that had dominated our life.
Vance, 41, and Kirk, 31, shared a common cause as representatives of a younger conservatism inspired by Trump that has thrown out in a new media ecosystem populated by podcasts on the right. The scope of Trump to young male voters and the hosts of podcasts who listen, helped by allies such as Vance and Kirk, was seen as a significant piece of its winning strategy of 2024.
In his position on Wednesday, Vance described Kirk as a key and influential figure in his 2022 Senate campaign in Ohio, where he began as a loser in a crowded Republican primary. Kirk, he wrote, “was one of the first people I called” to weigh if running.
“We speak throughout everything, from the strategy to the collection of funds to the base of the movement that I knew so well,” added Vance. “He introduced me to some of the people who would direct my campaign and also Donald Trump Jr.”, Trump’s eldest son, who “took a call to mine because Charlie asked me.”
It was the beginning of a link that, working with Vance’s political team in Ohio, would take him to the White House.
Andrew Surabian, who would become one of Vance’s main political advisors, was also linked to Vance at the instances of Kirk.
“I will never forget that it was actually Charlie who first introduced me to JD,” Surabian recalled on Thursday in an X publication.
“He sent me a text message from nowhere one morning, at a time when I was considering with which candidate for the Senate of Ohio to sign and said:” You need to meet JD Vance. “I sent him a text message: ‘The guy never-trump?’ He called me immediately and insisted that JD was “one of us” and had experienced a true conversion about Trump. “
Surabian was “on the phone with JD within the time”, and quickly got along and agreed to work together.
“Charlie told me enthusiastically that I wouldn’t regret it,” Surabian wrote. “And he certainly was right about that.”
Surabian was also working closely with Trump Jr., who helped Vance soften things with his father. The old Trump had been very aware of the past criticism of Vance. In a clear air meeting Trump Jr. helped organize in Mar-a-Lago during the first days of the Senate campaign, there were “10 minutes from President Trump who broke JD’s skills” before moving on to other issues, said a person close to Vance to NBC News last year.
The effort was worth the Vance team. Trump supported him and met for him in the final weeks of the primary of 2022. In his victory speech, Vance thanked the Trump and Surabian, and Kirk, who had campaigned with him in the last days of a tight race.
After Vance won the general elections that fall, his friends with Kirk and Trump Jr. flourished. When the speculation turned to the Trump selection of a formula partner in 2024, both publicly promoted Vance as a strong contender at a time when Republicans like the then Sen. Marco Rubio de Florida and then Gov. Doug Burgum from North Dakota was seen as safer options. (Both ended as members of the Trump cabinet after he won).
“When I became the nominee to the vice president, something that Charlie advocated both public and private, Charlie was there for me,” Vance wrote on Wednesday night in X. “I was very happy to be part of the president’s team, but sincerely surprised by the effect he had on our family. Our children, especially our oldest, fought with the constant attention and presence of the protective detail.”
“I felt this sharp sense of guilt, which had recruited my children in this life without obtaining their permission,” Vance added. “And Charlie was constantly calling and sending text messages, reviewing our family and offering guidance and prayers.”
Vance also accredited Kirk for having a hand in his and Trump’s victory. He shared a photo on Wednesday that he showed him with Trump Jr., Surabian and Kirk after a campaign event days before the 2024 elections.
Just after midnight on the day of the inauguration, a vance of tuxedo took the stage with Kirk on the opening ball of Turning Point after an performance of the people of the village.
“I just want to say that, from the bottom of my heart, thanks. Thanks to Charlie,” Vance said then.
In his publication on Wednesday night, Vance pointed out how he and Kirk had continued in contact with others through a series of mutual group texts, some of them, including “people at the highest level of our government.”
“I was at a meeting in the West Wing when those group chats began to illuminate with people telling Charlie that they were praying for him,” Vance wrote. “And that’s how I learned the news that my friend had received a shot. I picked up a lot during the next hour, like the first good news and then bad entries.”
“God did not respond to those prayers, and it’s fine,” Vance added. “I had other plans. And now that Charlie is in heaven, I will ask you to talk with [the] Great man directly on behalf of his family, his friends and the country he loved so much. “
