The first National Day of Remembrance for assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk, was conservatism’s night in De Pere on Oct. 14.
A string of Republican figures upheld Kirk among history’s great names and promoted his values of God, family, and country as a political rallying cry, telling conservatives these next elections to be unapologetic in their vision for America. The event was held in an AmeriLux warehouse, 2000 Commerce Drive, in De Pere.
Kirk was killed while speaking Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University. Kirk was shot in a scene watched by millions on video. The suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was charged with aggravated murder on Sept. 16.
Conservative radio host Joe Giganti, the night’s master of ceremonies, was preceded by a bagpipe rendition of “America the Beautiful” and was followed by an opening prayer that urged conservatives to “step out in faith” into a political climate several speakers said was hostile to conservative beliefs.
“You feel like you’re in church, right?” Giganti said to the crowd of several hundred in red, white, and blue, some in Kirk-inspired merchandise sold by the Brown County Republican Party.
He said the night was not a political rally and that it would be a mistake to call Kirk a political man. The emphasis was still very much on politics with Giganti also saying Kirk was heavily involved in politics anyway as a matter of faith.
Giganti and many of the speakers ― most of them former and current politicians ― would repeat in some fashion that conservatives needed “to remain courageous.”
Brown County Board member Dixon Wolfe, who is also the Midwest field manager for Kirk’s Turning Point Action, the political arm of Turning Point USA, said the core tenets of conservatism are that abortion is wrong; that there are two genders; that communism and socialism don’t work; that the Christian God is real; and that “freedom is worth defending.”
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson also added “winning” to the list of conservative ideals.
Banners, American flag, and attendees at National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk in De Pere
Ken Sikora, chair of the Oconto County and 8th Congressional District Republican Party, called Kirk “a revolutionary of our time.”
Brooke Brandtjen, daughter of former state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, paralleled Kirk with Thomas Jefferson, conservatives with American revolutionary rebels, and was applauded after quoting from Jefferson’s “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms.”
Thompson called Kirk “the John the Baptist of this century,” saying that Kirk was killed much as John the Baptist was beheaded at the orders of King Herod “because they were afraid of what he was going to say.”
Kirk’s style was polemical. The native of Chicago’s suburbs founded Turning Point USA, a nonprofit advocacy group aimed at promoting conservatism to high school and college minds. Its watchdog programs call out professors and school boards for “leftist, racist, and anti-American propaganda,” according to the initiative descriptions. Kirk often held public and viral debates on campuses posted to social media. He is credited with helping to twice elect President Donald Trump by moving young voters to the right. Those born in the 1980s, ’90s, and 2000s were more likely to favor Trump in the 2024 presidential election than before, according to a Pew Research Center study.
Trump later announced Kirk’s death, saying Kirk was “a martyr for truth and freedom.”
Kirk was honored in death by the U.S. Senate’s unanimous Sept. 16 resolution for being a “devoted husband, father, and Christian” and his “commitment to the constitutional principles of civil discussion and debate between all people of the United States, regardless of political affiliation.” The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution with bipartisan support and sizeable Democratic dissension that designated Kirk’s Oct. 14 birthday as a national day of remembrance for what the resolution called a “champion of free speech, civil dialogue, and faith.”
In similar fashion to the Days of Remembrance for the Holocaust passed by Congress in 1980 and Patriot Day commemorating 9/11, Congress’ resolution urged the public to engage with “appropriate programs, activities, prayers, and ceremonies that promote civic engagement and the principles of faith, liberty, and democracy” on this day.
So the event at De Pere took place as part of the day’s festivities across the nation. Trump in a White House ceremony the same day posthumously awarded Kirk with the Presidental Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.
This event was originally scheduled for Green Bay’s South Bay Marina, 101 Bay Beach Road. Sikora said several places had declined to host a political event, which he attributed to the liberal employees at those spaces. Sikora said Kurt Voss, AmeriLux’s CEO, reached out to him to offer the warehouse as a venue.
Turning Point Action booth encouraging voter registration at National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk in De Pere
U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, R-De Pere, denounced political violence. He directly referred to attacks on two Democratic Minnesota lawmakers and alleged death threats against his office by a member of the local Democratic Party. The U.S. Capitol Police declined to comment to the Press-Gazette on the alleged threats and denied a records request, saying “disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with law enforcement proceedings.”
Wied blamed such violence on “the far left,” Democratic politicians and news outlets. He claimed such groups suppressed free speech and were “echoing the nonstop fear-mongering and hateful rhetoric” on social media. He said they were stoking violence against ICE agents and law enforcement “who are simply just doing their jobs,” in apparent reference to the numerous requests by Trump to deploy the National Guard, the military, and ICE across the country, some deployments sweeping up American citizens during arrests of illegal immigrants.
In a statement, the chair of the 8th Congressional District Democratic Party Julie Hancock said, “It sounds like local Republicans are just as divided on this issue as they are on health care. (U.S. Rep.) Marjorie Taylor Greene is right to call out her own party and colleagues like Tony Wied for failing to act. Health care costs are about to skyrocket, and Democrats are the only ones standing united to do something about it.”
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tom Tiffany recounted his first interview with Kirk during the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Tiffany recalled that Kirk asked what he would do about election integrity, to which Tiffany said he gave a boilerplate response, and Kirk responded with, “You’re not doing enough.”
“I took umbrage of that comment,” Tiffany said.
He immediately followed the anecdote by claiming credit as the first to call attention to the clerk of Madison’s unlawful neglect of 193 absentee ballots found by a state election commission investigation. It’s something Tiffany has touted on social media for which he received a reprimand by the State Assembly’s election committee to “tone down the rhetoric.”
A collective of local church leaders played classic evangelical Christian anthems in the interlude of speakers. The music returned at the end as people began filtering out two hours into the event, at 8 p.m., past when many of the politicians had already left after speaking, and Giganti uttered to the crowd a quote attributed to Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard: “The tyrant dies and his rule is over. The martyr dies and his rule begins.”
Attendees listen at National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk in De Pere
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. Contact him at 920-834-4250 or jlin@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Conservatism’s night in De Pere for remembrance of Charlie Kirk
