“No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”

So said US President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post on Thursday morning, Australian time, confirming 31-year-old influencer and activist Charlie Kirk had died after being shot on a college campus in Utah.

Born in the affluent northwestern Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights in 1993, Kirk leaves behind his wife Erika and two young daughters.

He pioneered a new model for conservative campaigning, using social media — increasingly TikTok — to court the youth vote while also relying on more traditional methods such as radio, town hall-style meetings and get-out-the-vote drives.

The non-profit Turning Point USA, which he co-founded aged 18 in 2012, became the envy of Democrati

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