(Phoenix) Erika Kirk, the widow of murdered ultraconservative influencer Charlie Kirk, has thrown her support behind US Vice President JD Vance for the 2028 presidential election, launching an early start to the race for the White House.
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Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA, his influential youth organization that Erika Kirk took over after her husband’s death, played an important role in Donald Trump’s victorious 2024 election campaign.
“We’re going to elect my husband’s friend, JD Vance, as 48e president, in the most resounding way possible,” the young woman said Thursday evening during AmericaFest, a conservative gathering organized by Turning Point USA, the first edition since the assassination of its founder.
PHOTO JON CHERRY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Erika Kirk
The event welcomes leading figures from Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement to Phoenix, Arizona for four days. JD Vance is scheduled to speak there on Sunday.
If the American vice-president has not announced that he will run in the 2028 election, his candidacy is widely expected.
And the early support of Turning Point USA, with its growing influence within the MAGA movement, could promote momentum in its favor.
This announcement also comes as some divisions within Donald Trump’s movement become increasingly evident. Last month, Georgia elected official Marjorie Taylor Greene, until then loyal to Donald Trump, denounced his handling of the Epstein file and announced her resignation from Congress.
PHOTO ROSS D. FRANKLIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Charlie Kirk
JD Vance was close to Charlie Kirk before he was murdered in September 2025 on a Utah college campus.
This 31-year-old nationalist Christian largely contributed to disinformation about the 2020 presidential election, the result of which is still contested by Donald Trump. He posed as a fierce defender of the traditional family and was very critical of the LGBT+ community and transgender people.
