Erika Kirk is telling conservatives to stop pointing fingers and start rebuilding after Republicans took a beating in Tuesday’s midterm elections. In a long post on X the day after, the Turning Point USA CEO leaned on the words of her late husband, Charlie Kirk, and said the organization is already turning its attention to 2028.
“Charlie’s vision for Turning Point Action was always bigger than one election,” she wrote. “He wanted a permanent, year-round operation with the people, relationships, and resources to compete in every cycle.”
Turning Point Action is the political arm of Turning Point USA, the conservative student group Charlie Kirk cofounded in 2012. Unlike the student group, Turning Point Action is set up as a nonprofit that is allowed to take sides in elections, so it can campaign for candidates and run get out the vote efforts. Erika Kirk took over as CEO and board chair of Turning Point USA in September 2025, days after Charlie was assassinated.
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Her message came after a rough night for her side. NBC News projects Democrats will take control of both the House and the Senate in January, with at least 258 House seats, the party’s biggest House majority since 1993. Democrats flipped seats in districts Trump won by 10 points or more in 2024.
Kirk did not dress up the results. She wrote that races Republicans “once won handily by double digits” came down to the thinnest margins, and some flipped entirely. She pointed to democratic socialist candidates, meaning progressives who push for bigger government programs and more public control over things like housing and health care, and said they won voters over by focusing on the cost of gas, groceries and housing.
“A rising stock market doesn’t mean much when nearly half of Americans don’t have a 401K and just want to put gas in their trucks, put food on the table, and provide a good life for their families,” she wrote.
She added that exit polls showed Americans are worried about the economy and the war in Iran, and said Turning Point has been hearing the same concerns from students around the country for months.
Kirk rejected socialism itself, writing that it has failed every time it has been tried because it puts economic power in the hands of government instead of individuals and families. Still, she said conservatives can disagree with those solutions while recognizing why voters went looking for answers somewhere else.
She also warned her own party. Kirk called finger pointing, infighting and politicians protecting their own careers the biggest mistake conservatives could make right now, because none of it solves the problems voters want fixed. Americans, she wrote, no longer follow party labels blindly and will back whoever speaks to what they need: an affordable home, safe communities and a future with more opportunity for their kids.
Kirk tied the moment back to Charlie. She said Turning Point was born out of a similar stretch of frustration after the Obama years, and shared the advice he used to give.
“I miss Charlie so much every single day, but especially on a day like today,” she wrote. “He always said that when things are going well, we need to stay humble. And when things aren’t going the way we want, we need to stay positive, keep our faith, and get back to work.”
Going forward, she said Turning Point will study the results, listen to voters and spend the next two years making the case for conservative and free market solutions, while continuing to build the year round operation Charlie envisioned ahead of 2028.
She closed by thanking the staff, students, volunteers and ballot chasers, the volunteers who track down voters to make sure their mail ballots get turned in, and said Charlie would be proud of every one of them.
