Kirk brought confrontational brand of politics to UCSD in May
Dante Ulanday - News Moderator 
Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed at a Utah campus event Wednesday, has spoken in San Diego County at least four times in recent years, twice at local colleges — San Diego State University in May 2024 and UC San Diego this past May.
UCSD’s student newspaper reported that Kirk — in his May 1 appearance — debated attendees on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, the economy, education and religion.
In the days before his arrival, Nicholas Reason, a senior staff writer for The Guardian, wrote an opinion piece titled “Yelling at Charlie Kirk accomplishes nothing.”
“Liberal principles aside, shouting Kirk down is a stupid way to protest for a much simpler reason: It’s what he wants,” Reason wrote. “Disrupting a controversial public speaker almost always ends up amplifying their message.”
Following the event, the campus paper noted that “an estimated 1,100 people gathered to watch Kirk. Many members of the crowd wore merchandise in support of President Donald Trump, and some (university police) officers were pictured leaving the event with MAGA hats.”
Videos posted to social media around the time of the event reflected the passionate responses Kirk inspired — whether in support or opposition to his hard-right stances.
“What excites me most about the Charlie Kirk event is that I’ve noticed that a lot of Gen Z are turning more right, so I think viewing this will prove to the world, and San Diego of course, that Gen Z is turning right and that the future is America First,” Arnulfo Hernandez said in a video posted to Turning Point UCSD’s Instagram account.
Turning Point USA is the activist organization Kirk co-founded in 2012.
Another attendee, Seneka Millawa, debated Kirk about the right to abortion. In reaction to an edited clip that Turning Point’s UCSD chapter posted, she wrote “Cut out the part where he blatantly lies and talks about how abortion is the number one form of birth control in the country lol. What a joke, regret even speaking to him if I was gonna be edited to hell and high water to make him look better!!”
UCSD’s chapter hosted Kirk’s American Comeback Tour, where he visited college campuses across the country to “debate conventional narratives promoted by leftist academia.”
As in Utah, Kirk, 31, sat under a tent at UCSD with “Prove me wrong” written across the top.
