The Jefferson County Council recently approved a resolution honoring the life and work of the late Charlie Kirk, a conservative political activist who was shot and killed on Sept. 10 during a speaking event at Utah Valley University.
The County Council voted 6-0 to approve the resolution on Oct. 14, which also would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday. Councilman Scott Seek (District 5, Festus) was absent from the meeting.
Also on Oct. 14, President Donald Trump posthumously awarded Kirk the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Kirk, an entrepreneur and media personality, founded Turning Point USA in 2012, “one of the fastest growing conservative campus advocacy organizations in the United States, dedicated to promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government,” according to the council’s resolution.
Councilman Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) spoke in favor of the resolution, reciting a quote from one of Kirk’s novels.
“I’ve been reading a book by Mr. Kirk, and I came across a sentence in the book that I thought was appropriate to state this evening,” Groeteke said. “He states in his book, ‘Winning is going to require that you personally step up, and if you aren’t willing to do that, then you are doing nothing but playing your own small role in the death of this great country.’ I would invite all our citizens to step up and participate in their government so that we don’t go down this path.”
The St. Louis County Council rejected a similar resolution by a 5-2 vote in September, with the council’s four Democratic members and one Republican voting against the measure. Prior to the vote, the NAACP, as well as the St. Louis County and St. Louis chapters of the Ethical Society of Police, condemned the resolution, according to a report from St. Louis Public Radio.
“While we unequivocally condemn the violence that ended his life, we cannot ignore that Mr. Kirk’s public record is defined by rhetoric that undermined civil rights, dismissed the struggles of marginalized communities, disrespected African American women and spread division,” the NAACP said in its statement before the vote. “To elevate such a legacy through official recognition is both harmful and inconsistent with the values of equality, justice and dignity that this community deserves. Honoring those who openly disparaged civil rights protections sends the wrong message to our children and neighbors about the kind of leadership worth emulating.”
According to Jefferson County documents, a copy of the resolution the council passed will be sent to Kirk’s family. He left behind a wife, Erika, and two young children.
“The Jefferson County Council believes that political violence of any kind must be condemned and rejected,” the resolution stated. “Like systematic injustice, it has no place in American society. Whether directed at Charlie Kirk or any other political figure, we must unite against such acts and honor those who dedicate their lives to fostering respectful and civic engagement.”
Marcos Zelada-Rodas, director of government affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors Heart of America, applauded the Jefferson County Council for approving the resolution.
Zelada-Rodas said he got to know Kirk in 2019, after joining Turning Point USA as a campus coordinator.
“I got very involved, and it changed my life for the better,” he said. “I met my wife through Turning Point USA; I met my best friends who were in my wedding through Turning Point USA, and I followed the example that Charlie Kirk laid out, which I didn’t realize at the time I was really doing – he was just a friend I got to work with. His assassination hit hard for me and my wife and so many in our country.”