Erika Kirk Tells Ole Miss Students The Secret To Having Courage Like Charlie

Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk told a crowd of students at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday that her late husband Charlie learned how to have courage by starting his day with three simple questions.

Kirk spoke to hundreds of students at Ole Miss at a TPUSA university rally just seven weeks after her husband’s assassination at an event in Utah. Kirk spoke ahead of Vice President JD Vance, who had agreed to participate in the Turning Point USA event at Kirk’s request.

Kirk said her husband, who led Turning Point USA until his death, started his days with a routine that made him think about his purpose and serving others.

First, Charlie would wake up and see a phrase that his wife had hung on his side of their bedroom. The sign read: “They will be known by the boldness of their faith.” Kirk said she never appreciated the strength of the phrase until she was able to sleep in their bedroom again for the first time since Charlie’s murder.

When Charlie made it into his office, he asked himself three questions every morning that set the tone for the rest of his day.

“What is something I can do for someone today? The second was: what is something I can do to add value to the world today? And the third was: how can I honor God today?” Kirk told the crowd. “Those were the three questions combined with the words he saw every single morning. So to me, seeing that, seeing on his desk, that was him suited up with the armor of the Lord every day.”

“What I’m realizing with that is those were the action points of how to have courage, because you can ask me, ‘well, how to I become courageous?’ Ask yourself those three questions every single day, and I promise you, you will get courage,” she said. “You will because what death amplifies even more is that you only get one life … [and] I want to remind you that God has created you for greatness.”