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The assassination of conservative influencer and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk last week has sparked renewed urgency around protecting free speech, particularly on college campuses.
Kirk, 31, was killed Wednesday during a campus event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He leaves behind his wife, Erika, and two young children.
Seattle-based journalist and conservative influencer Cameron Higby, who contracts for Turning Point’s FrontLines, is among those leading efforts to honor Kirk’s legacy. He co-launched a grassroots campus tour this week with political commentator David Khait called “Fearless.”
“It’s to show people that conservatives, and people in general, aren’t afraid to go out and talk about their beliefs in the public square… Even though Charlie sat behind a table just like ours and was shot and killed. We want to show that we’re not scared,” Higby told Fox News Digital.
COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CHARLIE KIRK
Wearing “Make America Great Again” hats, Higby and Khait set up a booth Monday at Georgia State University with signs that read, “Nobody should be killed for their opinions. RIP Charlie” and “Left is violent: Let’s debate.” The next day, they kept the Kirk sign and put up a new sign that read, “Men cannot be women: Let’s talk.”
Higby said the tour will expand to more schools in Georgia and surrounding states, with the goal of encouraging open dialogue between both sides.
Some people who approached the booth engaged respectfully, Higby said, while others confronted them aggressively.
Clips shared on social media showed one man calling Kirk anti-LGBTQ and saying he was “happy” Kirk was killed. Another person declared Kirk “deserved it” and mocked him by pretending to shoot himself in the neck.
“It’s very sad to see that kind of thing, especially people who clearly know nothing about Charlie coming up and basically justifying his death,” Higby said.
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At one point, a person snatched Khait’s hat as a crowd cheered. On X, Higby wrote that protesters also tried to take their microphones, jumped on their table and demanded they leave.
Higby, who frequently documents Antifa activity in the Pacific Northwest, said the hostility extends beyond campuses. He encountered protesters at a Seattle vigil for Kirk, where one man boasted on camera that he supported Kirk’s murder and would have killed him himself.
Higby said he was punched in the face by two other protesters while covering the vigil and protest.
“One of them grabs my phone out of my hand… then punched me in the face. And then the transgender person came up and punched me in the face. They literally smashed [my smart glasses] on my face. They’re completely destroyed,” he said.
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Higby said he has also faced violence covering protests in Seattle and Portland, where he and other independent journalists have been targeted. In June, he and Seattle journalist Brandi Kruse were attacked by agitators protesting immigration enforcement.
Despite the confrontations, Higby said many students have shown support for Kirk’s family even if they disagreed with his politics. He pointed to conversations at the University of Washington last week as evidence that free speech is still alive, even in far-left enclaves.
He believes Kirk’s influence has spread because of his commitment to debate and civil discourse.
“I think that Charlie was almost a perfect reflection of the principles that this country was built on,” Higby said. “He actively sought out his opposition to have discussions with them and actively policed his own followers to behave and respect those people who disagreed with him.”
“People are sad because he represented what America stands for, and he was murdered doing it,” he added.
Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk founded, has received more than 37,000 inquiries from people interested in starting new campus chapters since his death.
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