In selecting the 20th American of the Year since instituting the award back in 2004, this becomes just the second time that the honor is being bestowed posthumously.

This time around that honor goes to one of the most inspirational young figures in modern conservatism, 31-year-old Charlie Kirk.

A man of faith and family, Charlie Kirk would have been a leading contender for this recognition without the tragic circumstances of his October assassination. That heinous act did not silence his voice as intended, but only served to cement his legacy.

Kirk was born on October 14, 1993 in Arlington Heights, Illinois, about 25 miles from Chicago. Raised by moderate Republican parents, Kirk was a model youngster, joining and rising through the American Boy Scout ranks and eventually reaching the Eagle Scout level.

He began getting politically active during his high school years at Wheeling High School in Illinois. Influenced by the political and social ideas of Rush Limbaugh and economic principles of Milton Friedman, Kirk was increasingly drawn to and educated himself in conservatism.

In 2010, while still in high school at just age 17, Kirk wrote an article that was published by Breitbart News. This exposure began to get him noticed by a wider audience.

Two years later he co-founded Turning Point USA along with early mentor, Tea Party member and 72-year-old retired marketing executive Bill Montgomery. Their efforts with this conservative student organization aimed to engage young people to advocate for limited government and free market economy. It would lead to Kirk’s first-ever national television appearance on the “Fox & Friends” morning program.

As he pointed it in many of his speeches and debates during later years, Kirk never finished college. Rejected for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2012, accepted at Baylor University, he chose to attend a local community college but stayed for just one semester.

Instead, Kirk threw himself totally into organizing and growing Turning Point. For the rest of his life, Charlie would be the face of TPUSA, leading the organization as Executive Director.

In order to spread the TPUSA message, Kirk took to the college campus circuit. He would deliver speeches and engage students there in question-and-answer sessions as well as discussions and debates on political, social, economic, and religious topics of the day.

These campus events were most frequently with those of the opposite political persuasion. Charlie’s primary goal became to win young hearts and minds over to the truth of Christianity and to embracing traditional American values and greatness under conservative spiritual, social and economic principles.

Developing and working with a great team of fellow young TPUSA devotees, Kirk’s appearances quickly spread on social media. This brought increasing financial support to TPUSA and larger and larger audiences at his events.

By the time of his death, TPUSA had grown to over 2,000 official chapters at high schools and colleges with thousands more applications or inquiries being received daily.

At age 25 in 2019, Kirk met 30-year-old Erika Frantzve, who had been Miss Arizona USA back in 2012. The two began dating and got engaged a year later and became nearly inseparable. They married in May 2021 and eventually had two children, daughter Blair in August 2022 and son Charlie born in May 2024.

In October 2020, Kirk began podcasting “The Charlie Kirk Show” which quickly grew into one of the most popular in the nation. In 2024, Kirk expanded his video presentations to TikTok and again built a tremendous following on that increasingly influential social media platform. Then in February of 2025 he began airing “Charlie Kirk Today”, a weekly talk show on the Trinity Broadcasting television network.

On September 10, 2025, Kirk was in the middle of another TPUSA event, this one at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. At 12:23 PM MDT in front of thousands of live spectators, Charlie was horrifically assassinated. A gunman perched on a nearby roof murdered him with a single shot to the neck that was gruesomely captured on video from numerous angles and quickly distributed widely on social media.

Rather than silence Charlie, the assassin’s bullet only served to galvanize the TPUSA movement. In the weeks after his death the organization grew exponentially. Erika has courageously vowed to take on the role of leading her husband’s movement forward as she raises their two children.

For his unwavering public commitment to faith and family, the ideals of free market conservatism, and for successfully working to draw millions of young Americans towards embracing those most worthy ideals in their own lives, Charlie Kirk is named as the 2025 American of the Year. May he rest in peace.

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