Serious???: What percentage of the US population knew who Charlie Kirk was

[Norbert]

My wife called me the afternoon it happened. It was far down the list of topics. She doesn't follow politics that much until election. She did not know who he was. She asked me and even I botched up the answer. A little later I went into the break room and the story was unfolding on the TV there. Again, one of my coworkers heard the name but didn't know who he was.

I think many are in the same boat which begs the question why are so many sports stadiums. Paying tribute? He was not well known last week at this time.

[Walleye]

1. I didn't know who he was except a few outrageous things he said until a couple of weeks ago

He was never a household word, and I got him mixed up with other Charlies. He was ugly enough to be notable, I hope I don’t get arrested for that.

[House of Roberts]

27. I always got him confused with Charlie Sykes.

Who used to be a right wing radio host, but I guess is a never Trumper now.

[Walleye]

34. Yeah, me too. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[BHDem53]

69. Me three.

[JanMichael]

67. The name sounded familiar but never heard him talking about anything.

I also thought it was 40 or 50 years old.

So no o didn't know much about him at all

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

80. We knew who he was and the vile, vulgar things he said.

One of them that really infuriated us was that he said that "Empathy is a made up word." Geez, sure are seeing a lot of "empathy" for a guy who didn't believe in it.

Sick of the right wing fundies trying to make this kid into the Second Coming of Christ. He was a racist, misogynist, bigoted, homophobic, xenophobic crusader for all things trmp. He shouldn't have been murdered, but all of this hand-wringing, flag-lowering, fevered hysteria is making us nauseous.

Where was all of this outpouring of indignant outrage when the MN Speaker of the House and her husband (and dog) were murdered ? Not one peep from the right wing about that tragedy.
On the same day as the Kirk shooting, children in CO were shot and killed. The silence was deafening about that, too.

Face it, the only school shooting to spark fire on the right was for Kirk.

[womanofthehills]

92. The kids did - he was basically an organizer of young Republicans

He was even a cartoon character in an episode of South Park.

He had 3000 Turning Points chapters in high schools and colleges in US.

[Silent Type]

2. He's well known now. Was in same boat before, I'd see a reference to Charlie Kirk but thought it was about Star Trek.

[Norbert]

8. When my wife said Kirk...

My first thought was, something happened to William Shatner since that was far and away the most famous character he played.

[leftstreet]

3. Probably very, very few

But they've cleverly turned him into a martyr and recruitment tool

If he hadn't been unalived, none of this would be happening. He'd have gone to his grave in old age with zero flags lowered

[yankee87]

4. Podcaster

He was nothing but a third rate grifter who had a good schtick. He could have been working for the circus as a side show barker.

[W_HAMILTON]

5. Because Republican.

We're living in an increasingly fascist state where the fascists and those-friendly-to-fascists have no shame in letting their true rightwing colors show at this time.

[Walleye]

35. Absolutely true true. But then they get all butt hurt if you point anything like that out to them. Like calling them a

Fascist or something. The party of butt-hurt boys.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. Out of the list of the thousands of people in the news over a period of years that we all are exposed to, I'd say

less than 1%. Far down the topics of our normal discourse is absolutely right.

The fake outrage by the ultra-right has gone too far, and seems fake to me in reality.

[Walleye]

91. So many people will never know his real political stance they will whitewash it, and they never knew him

[Submariner]

7. The percentage that know the flag was lowered instantly for that racist asshole

Last edited Tue Sep 16, 2025, 05:23 PM - Edit history (1)

but for the most honorable President, Jimmy Carter, we had to embarrass Putin's glory hole into lowering it, then he raised it next day.

That's al I will ever remember about that racist ignorant school dropout.

[maddiemom]

83. YES! I don't know how I 'd forgotten about the President Jimmy Carter thing.

That was truly a disgrace on Trump's part. Makes this Kirk thing all the more revolting.

[UpInArms]

9. I somehow ended up on a mailing or text list that he obtained

A couple years ago …

The content disturbed me, so I looked him up and learned who and what he was …

I unsubscribed and reported it as spam

I felt soiled and violated

[LeftInTX]

10. He was not a household name. I knew who he was.

I mix him up with Nick Fuentes and Enrique Tarrio etc...I can't keep up with them. Proud Boys, MAGATS, Three Percenters, Patriot Prayer, Tea Party Patriots etc etc....

I knew he was head of Turning Point USA and he showed up at the Democratic Convention last year. He kinda reminded me of James O'Keefe. I was like, "What's he doing there?"

Apparently, later Kirk claimed he convinced a DNC delegate to vote for Trump. (Geez)

https://www.newsweek.com/charlie-kirk-parker-short-altercation-dnc-2024-1941415

[Seinan Sensei]

93. This is a perfect example of Kirk's MO

Can’t answer the question, Charlie?
Then answer the question with a question.
Use an unrelated stock question to change the topic.
Lots of Charlie’s material came from The Bell Curve, a 1995 POS book that took observations and made them into causal statements. Right-wingers loved it.

So what can we do?
For one thing, we can flip the script
Ask the Charlie Kirks of the world to name one thing that Jesus preached that corresponds to Trump’s policies.

Maybe ask them to go home and read Matthew 25, Jesus’s sermon in Luke 4:18-19, Beatitudes in Luke 6:20-26.
Also Micah 6:8

[Diamond_Dog]

11. I had heard his name before but that was all, I didn't know who he was or anything about him.

I suppose if you were a regular fox nooze viewer you’d know who he was and what he stood for.

[iemanja]

12. Honestly, I'd heard his name but didn't know any details about him.

[elleng]

13. Never heard of him until he was shot.

[Ping Tung]

14. I never even heard of him until he got shot.

From what I've heard new I doubt that I missed anything significant.

[Freddie]

15. I am so f*cking sick of this never ending story

Over a third rate hate-spreading blogger. Let him rest in flames 🔥 like his pal James Dobson. Now they’ve interrupted my soap just when it’s getting good.

[womanofthehills]

43. You are underestimating him - not just a blogger but a huge youth influencer

Many adults & seniors don’t know who he is but kids do. There are over 3000 Turning Points chapters in US high schools and colleges. Now- after his death, Turning Points has over 20,000 requests for new Turning Point chapters in schools. There is a video out this week of kids protesting their school for refusing to let them open a Turning Points chapter. Then we have Israel flying all the young conservative Christian influencers in Turning Points for free to Israel. Charlie’s wife Ericka said the first time she saw Charlie was in a line in Israel and then later they traveled together to Israel,

How do Dems counter this? We could end up with 20,000 Turning Points chapters in our high schools and colleges. I think this should be a big concern. Hopefully, without Kirk, the kids will lose interest, The majority of young Republican kids are now polling as anti-genocide so I don’t think they will take to Zionist Ben Shapiro who wants to replace Kirk.

[Seeking Serenity]

44. This is true. My Millennial and Zoomer sons, both adults, both knew who CK was

and were/are very affected by his assassination.

ETA: Responding to this

Many adults & seniors don’t know who he is but kids do.

[LeftInTX]

45. Yikes! Thanks for the info!

[ITAL]

16. He was well known among younger people

I'm probably on the younger side for this board (mid 40s), and a whole lot of the folks I went to school with made comments about his shooting. I'm also a member of a film discussion board and all sorts of folks talked about him when it happened. I'd say for people 45 and younger he was fairly well known.

[LeftInTX]

18. I'm old and knew about him.

[Kali]

39. same

but then I spend way too much time here on DU

[Crowman2009]

37. I wish I knew less about him.

I've frequented various progressive YouTube channels where he's mentioned more often than MSM. Now that I've revisted his horrible views about rape and underage rape, I'm glad he's dead. I just wish he died from his own stupidity as opposed to political violence. What an absolute horrible piece of shit he was!

Not to mention that his organization TPUSA is a totally hypocritical corrupt organization.

[Crunchy Frog]

54. Sadly, I think he's going to do more harm dead than he did alive.

[wcollar]

72. Lush Rimbaugh

I think and hope he’ll be more like Limbaugh, quickly forgotten.

[ITAL]

74. Unlikely

Limbaugh died of natural causes. Kirk was murdered. I remember one of my history professors in college saying "If you're a public figure and want to be remembered fondly, get assassinated." He said it tongue in cheek, but there's a lot of validity to that.

[Crunchy Frog]

90. Limbaugh wasn't assassinated, wasn't turned into a martyr,

and there was no conceivable way that his death could be blamed on "the left".

Plus, he appealed to a much older demographic, through radio, not internet, and didn't have a massive organization infiltrating schools and radicalizing young people.

He was already a spent force when he died. The regime couldn't use him in the same way that it's going to be using CK.

I honestly hope you're right, but at the point I feel that it's wishful thinking.

[CrispyQ]

17. What's really tragic is that a whole bunch of people who didn't know of him, now think he's a good guy.

And if they're apolitical anyway, how many will go verify what the truth is?

Every day we sink a little deeper.

[Norbert]

20. Yep, and I hope they don't buy that the left are monsters.

Or else this could be the best thing that happened to the MAGAs this year.

[Keepthesoulalive]

49. Some people believe Trump is a good guy

And some people actually pray to him for salvation.

[Hope22]

19. His dirty work was done where he died...

On college campuses. Humping for TSF!

[Crowman2009]

40. I wish he was alive for the sole purpose of TPUSA falling apart due to financial & sex scandals, and hopefully would...

...result in Charlie going to prison a few years from now.

[tritsofme]

21. I don't think we were his target audience...

[TheProle]

22. I guess he flew under a lot of people's radar.

But he was key to delivering Trump many young voters, and the ongoing news cycle is further driving views of his content.

Kirk’s main Instagram account has added 3.5 million followers since the assassination; his podcast’s TikTok account has gained more than 1.5 million followers; and his main Facebook page has added more than 2.3 million followers.

On YouTube, Kirk’s primary channel now has 4.5 million subscribers, up from 3.8 million before he was killed.

The YouTube audience for his organization Turning Point USA has also grown, with 3.6 million subscribers now, up from 3.3 million.

Erika’s address was livestreamed on his main YouTube channel, and it has been viewed upwards of 3.1 million times on YouTube since.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/13/media/charlie-kirk-erika-social-media-tpusa-followers

[ificandream]

23. The right made this pinhead look like a shining star. Which he certainly wasn't.

Hero, patriot ... it's meat for the doggies on the right. And they ate it up.

I'm waiting for some dumbass Republican to put up a bill making his birthday a national holiday or some religious nut suggesting a church be named after him.

[dweller]

24. when you are dealing with zealots, they may decide martyrs are necessary

Charlie Kirk, 31, shot dead in Utah
Fortunately, the Second Amendment wasn't harmed.

https://cognitivedissident.substack.com/p/charlie-kirk-31-shot-dead-in-utah




✌🏻

[Ocelot II]

25. Unless you follow politics closely or are very online, you won't know who he was,

or, like me, you might know of him but vaguely - that he was some kind of RW troll who said shitty things about everybody who wasn't a white Christian male Republican. But until now I had no idea that he was such a BFD among (some) online youth - some kind of incel hero, it would seem - and now they're hanging him up on Jesus' cross while sending hippie Jesus off to do stupid woke stuff like feed the poor and heal the sick.

[Elessar Zappa]

84. A lot of young people know who he is.

There’s 3,000 chapters of his organization on high school campuses around the country. And that’s very scary.

[Ocelot II]

85. That's my point. He may be well-known to a large portion of *that demographic.*

But a whole lot of people are not part of that demographic and until now wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a lineup.

[Elessar Zappa]

87. Ok, understood.

Guess I’m just thinking out loud. I’m very worried about young men. My generation (millennial) had the most liberal men in history and now they say GenZ men are flocking to the fascists.

[RobinA]

26. I Had Never

heard of the guy. When I heard the news that a righty named Charlie Kirk had been shot during a speech I thought from the hullabaloo that he was a Congress critter. It was a good day and a half day before I realized he was just a talker. Now I'm counting the days until I never here of him again.

[EdmondDantes_]

28. Probably depends a lot on age and social media usage

He was very common on social media both people supporting and opposing him. Some (including Trump) give him some of the credit for young men shifting right.

[William Seger]

33. Any viewing of right-wing videos on YouTube assures you'll be offered a Kirk video eventually

[EdmondDantes_]

47. For me it was Instagram

It took forever to train the algorithm that just because I like fitness, that doesn't mean I want right wing stuff. But even before his death, there's frequently someone posting clips responding from the liberal perspective. Kirk had abhorrent ideas but he generated a whole lot of views both for and against his ideas.

[William Seger]

57. I have a separate YouTube account that I only use to comment on right-wing BS

It didn't take long before about 95% of the suggested videos were right-wing BS.

[LeftInTX]

59. Ugh......Fun!! (not my thing) ...LOL

Thanks for taking one for the team!

[William Seger]

61. Haven't done much lately - they've become too nauseating to even watch. (nt)

[Mark.b2]

29. I knew who he was...

I’d seen his Oxford debate since I watch those quite often. He was also on Bill Maher in the last 2-3 months.

I do think most of his prominence was among college-aged folks.

[JMCKUSICK]

30. That's why it's so easy to turn him into a Martyr,

Most of the sheeple who have never heard of him will swallow the bullshit, hook line and sinker.

[GreenWave]

31. Low amount therefore murdered not assassinated.

Now his corpse is a political tool for Trump

[Doodley]

32. I thought he was something to do with Star Trek.

[Gimpyknee]

36. I'm surprised that so few here knew who Charlie Kirk was.

[Coldwater]

38. Charlie Kirk was a groomer of young republicans

Through his non-profit organization Turning Point USA he paid for buses to take people to the January 6th insurrection.

[NewHendoLib]

41. I had a vague idea, but no specific knowledge

[live love laugh]

42. When they show you who they are ....

[Vogon_Glory]

62. Indeed

Although that concept doesn’t seem to be in vogue among podcasters, social media or the corrupt, lying “lamestream” corporate news media.

[WarGamer]

46. between his social media platforms he has around 10m followers...

850 campuses have TPUSA chapters...

So how many people would recognize the name?

IDK... maybe 5-10% of the population?

[TheProle]

88. Would be interesting to see the overlap in a Venn Diagram

of those who have never heard of an effective grassroots organizer for the opposition and those who immediately seized on election fraud to explain Harris' loss.

[markodochartaigh]

48. What percentage of the population knew who Kirk was?

Well, what percentage of the population knows who their national and state senators and representatives are?
What percentage can name the Secretary of State?
And what percentage of the population knew of Kirk and his odious beliefs before compared to the percentage of the population who know of St. Charlie now without understanding what he actually said?
Ignorance is an important political tool for authoritarians and the Republicans are expert in its use. They are funneling the next generation right down the skibidi toilet.

[AverageOldGuy]

50. I didn't konw

I knew Turning Point USA was a batshit crazy group but that’s all

[Crunchy Frog]

51. It's what the dictatorship and its mob demand.

I knew the name and could recognize the face, and knew he was a RW shit talker, but not much more than that, and he wasn't anyone that I ever thought about.

[Jimvanhise]

52. HE BOASTED HIS OWN RECOGNITION

Kirk dined with Donald Trump and thereby got more recognition. His Turning Point organization was so successful that he left an estate worth $14 million. But he apparently had his limits and refused to associate with Nick Fuentes who was anti-semitic and a Holocaust denier and there is video of him attempting to crash Charlie Kirk appearances and being turned away. But it took Charlie Kirk years to become as well known as he was. There are still questions about how serious he was because he made a lot of money off the backs of racists and white supremacists but did he really believe all of the crap he said about blacks or did it just make for good television?

[Coldwater]

53. The first time I heard then name Charlie Kirk was in December 2020

The first time I heard then name Charlie Kirk was in December 2020, He announced the Turning Point USA End-of-the Year Gala at Mar-a-Lago. During that week there were 15,000 new cases of Covid-19 reported in Florida and they were expecting 5000 students to attend the party.

The press was calling it a super-spreader event.

What I found most appalling was that the party was held in deference to the Covid-19 death earlier in the year of Turning Point USA co-founded Bill Montgomery.

[IronLionZion]

55. Republicans are using his death for their own gain, to advance their agenda

They love promoting and amplifying their BS through all media channels. This was just the latest excuse. You can tell since their "solutions" are to screw people who had nothing to do with it, like transgender or "the left" or higher education in general.

Nothing about guns. Nothing about reducing their own very violent rhetoric like "civil war" language. Nothing about the extremists on the far right who actually did it. Nope, just scapegoat people they don't like.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

56. They're using a whole NFL stadium for the memorial service.

Next Sunday. Doors open at 8am. Tailgate parties will start around 6am. Wear a red hat.

[doc03]

58. I think I may have heard his name before. I figured he was another one of the

countless right wing nut jobs.

[Demobrat]

60. I didn't know. Now after having read a few of his quotes,

I’m glad I didn’t. What an ugly man he was.

[canetoad]

63. The day before the shooting

I saw the name on DU and looked him up because hadn't heard of him before.

Next morning - all over. I felt like the kiss of death, but in a nice way.

[Seeking Serenity]

64. People here, who came of age in a very different political time, dismiss this assassination and the reactions to it

at their peril. This could be a radical game-changer. If you're oblivious to how the younger generations are reacting to this, on TikTok, on livestreams, well, I don't know what to say.

Destiny, a popular left-wing streamer, goes on his stream and says that conservatives ought to be afraid being killed when they go out in public until they convince Trump to tone it down. He said on Piers Morgan's YT show the other day that if conservatives didn't want political violence, they shouldn't have elected Trump (i.e. vote the way I want you to or there'll be violence).

My younger son pointed out that this was the first truly national political assassination since 1968, and I couldn't say he was wrong. He says this feels to him and his friends (IRL and online) that this is huge, and that (his view, not necessarily my own) you can only call your political enemies Nazis, Facists, evil, hateful, punch a Nazi, etc, until other people listening to those messages to internalise them and say, "Yeah, they are. If no one else is going to do something about it, I will."

People and circumstances change. It's a republic "if you can keep it." Right now, WE, people on the left and the right, aren't doing a very good job of keeping it right now. (And save the "It's not the left! All of it is only coming from the right" bit. It's just not true, and only the blind partisan cannot see.)

Just my (and my son's) opinion. Flame me as you will, IDC.

[fujiyamasan]

97. Not all comes from the right

But a vast majority sure does. Most domestic terrorism over the last two decades or more has come from the right. Do you need the stats?

More disturbingly, while a vast majority of Dems continue to decry and condemn political violence, we see one side increasingly call for retribution rather than calling for calm.

But feel free to both-sider this and encourage your son to do so if you want.

[AllaN01Bear]

65. never even heard of the guy undill the right made a big deall out of his assasination.

[Diraven]

66. Because they're turning him into a MAGA martyr

It's actually a feature that not many people know him. Because most people will just hear that he was a wonderful Christian family man brutally murdered by a leftist trans-loving assassin hired by the evil Democrats. All the nasty things he said that most people would likely find abhorrent can just be swept under the rug.

[mnhtnbb]

68. Young voters swung from Biden to Trump

in a big way in 2024. I was shocked to see the actual voter breakdown.

In almost every swing state, young voters showed their political power : NPR https://www.npr.org/2024/11/07/g-s1-33331/unpacking-the-2024-youth-vote-heres-what-we-know-so-far

I had no idea before Kirk was shot who he was. I'm beginning to finally understand the effect he may have had in influencing college age students to vote for Trump.

[LeftInTX]

86. Other influencers are his granddaughter, Kai Trump and son Barron.

Kai is a real cutie, has fun videos, she's likeable, she's relatable, so people don't think of her as a "Trump". One of her videos is "We tried everything at Dunkin Donuts" ...People like those kind of videos. (Unless they don't like donuts)

She had a big influence on TikTok with young people and helped Trump's image from old stale, boogie man to someone they felt they could relate to.




Kai Trump Tells Convention Crowd: ‘He’s Just a Normal Grandpa’
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/us/politics/kai-trump-granddaughter-rnc.html

[H2O Man]

70. Recommended.

All four of my adult children knew of him. I know that I've either heard his name on a podcast or read it here. So on the day he was shot, when my son told me I had to ask exactly who he was?

[muriel_volestrangler]

71. Poll: Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA second-most watched conservative platform in Alabama behind Fox News

The poll found that Fox News was the overwhelming favorite, with 59.5% of the vote. Next was Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA at 23.2%, followed by Tucker Carlson's show at 23.1% and then Newsmax at 21.4%.

https://1819news.com/news/item/poll-charlie-kirk-turning-point-usa-second-most-watched-conservative-platform-in-alabama-behind-fox-news

from 1295 Q2 2025 interviews by YouGov - 63% had heard of him: https://today.yougov.com/topics/international/explore/public_figure/Charlie_Kirk

That is the same as, say, Benicio del Toro, Sean Astin, Chris Elliot, Carly Rae Jepsen, or Joe Manchin.

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

76. Alabama --

Also famous for having one of the lowest rates of adult literacy and the highest rates of gun deaths.

[muriel_volestrangler]

79. Well, I hope you weren't thinking that it is the well-educated and those with few guns

who are wailing about him.

The point is that, yes, he was well known on the right. It's hard to think of an unelected activist on the left who was as well known. Who would you say is the best known left wing unelected activist (ie not counting people better known for doing something else, just for their political activity)?

[hadEnuf]

73. They are paying tribute thanks to right wing money.

Many monied MAGATs have an interest in turning Kirk into a martyr and the left into the fall guy.

Anything that has a big audience with a lot of conservatives is a target for the Trump poisoning.

[pfitz59]

75. Head recruiter for Twitler Youth. AKA Turning Point

The 'Ghislaine Maxwell' of MAGA youth. Lure them in with rock star type rallies, then fill their heads with racist tropes. Truly an evil chode.

[flashman13]

77. Horst Wessel was a nobody until Hitler and Goebbels turned him into a Nazi demigod.

[barbtries]

78. I found out earlier this year on BlueSky.

he was if anything a minor celebrity. what he had was a large number of radicalized young men; people who were radicalized by people such as he and others like him.

the sole reason that krasnov and company are making it such a big deal is for the propaganda they can generate and catapult around it. most magats don't know who the fuck he is either.

ETA why legacy media is jumping on the krasnov propaganda train is another story. it is not flattering to said media to think that they have capitulated and agreed to be the state's weapon in order to destroy democracy and be part of the autocracy. I gave them up some time ago and stick to Independent Media primarily now.

[Dentbla]

81. agree

I had no idea who he was, but the way the news initially came out, I assumed he was a republican holding an office.
Then I researched and read several of his thoughts and quotes and thought wtf. How did he survive this long?

[muriel_volestrangler]

82. Well enough known for South Park to lampoon him

A South Park episode making fun of right-wing activist and Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead on Wednesday while speaking at a US event, has been pulled from Comedy Central but remains on Paramount+.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone's long-running animated sitcom regularly lampoons leading figures including the US president.

The episode, titled Got a Nut, premiered on 6 August and finds the character Clyde Donovan espousing offensive views on a podcast. He then sets up a table at South Park Elementary school in order to "destroy woke liberal students", inviting his classmates to grab the microphone and prove him wrong.
...
In the episode, another South Park character, Eric Cartman, later fights with Donovan and takes his seat while wearing an outfit and hairstyle similar to Kirk.

Donovan is ultimately awarded the "Charlie Kirk Award for Young Master Debaters."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2500p3qjyo

[EYESORE 9001]

89. Perhaps 3 months ago

I’d heard the name bandied about, but had no idea what he looked like. I watched a couple of so-called debates where he got his ass handed to him. Gish gallop is so passé.

[IbogaProject]

94. His wealthy masters and MAGA knew him

That is why they are hyping him now after his death.

[LearnedHand]

95. I knew of him

Some of the folks behind the Find Out Podcast implemented an organized effort to show up at his college campuses and counter-debate him. I knew of him long before that as well through a number of articles about his influence and xtian dominionist messaging.

[Greybnk48]

96. I didn't know who he was although I thought the name sounded familiar.

When i saw his picture after the shooting, I can honestly say I had never seen him before.

[mimitabby]

98. Never heard of him

But I understand, young people are bombarde with his bs