BLACKSBURG, Va. — It was just after 4 p.m. when I had meandered my way through Virginia Tech’s campus — teeming with the buzz of students leaving classes — and found the growing line for a Turning Point USA event, only the second since its founder, Charlie Kirk, had been assassinated at a similar event in Utah two weeks and one day before.
There are plenty of things from the evening in Blacksburg that will make the news, from the greatly heightened security (including officers on the roof of the venue and police drones overhead) to podcaster Megyn Kelly’s tête-à-tête with a student who blamed President Donald Trump’s “rhetoric” for Kirk’s murder. But there was one moment that likely won’t draw so much attention.
It was an “uncomfortable” moment — at least, that’s how Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin preempted what he asked those gathered in Burress Hall to do at the end of his speech, before Kelly took the stage.
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Youngkin, the outgoing governor of Virginia, had been personally invited to speak at the TPUSA event by Kirk and, he said, was busy Sept. 10 rearranging his schedule to accommodate the invitation when he learned the 31-year-old had been fatally struck by an assassin’s bullet.
Seemingly spurred by Kirk’s own devotion to his Christian faith, Youngkin offered a bold message that felt less like a political rally and more like a Gospel outreach.
Admitting he was “not faithful” to God when he was in college, Youngkin encouraged Virginia Tech students that “the most important decision” they will make in their lives is “accepting Christ as your Savior.” The next most important choice they’ll make in life, he said, is deciding who to marry.
Youngkin then spoke about his relationship with his now-wife Suzanne. It was her faith in Jesus — and her insistence God be at the center of their marriage — that led Youngkin to his own faith in the Lord.
When he asked Suzanne to marry him, Youngkin reflected, she said, “Yes, but,” and went on to tell the now-governor, “Jesus is really the center of my life and, therefore, He has to be in the center of our marriage. Promise me you’ll do that.”
In the years to come, he recalled attending a class for new Christians at the church he and his wife were attending at the time. It was in that class, Youngkin said, that he “truly accepted Christ,” telling the thousands of students gathered in the dimly lit auditorium he felt the “Spirit descending on me and I could do nothing other than weep.”
Toward the end of his speech, Youngkin thanked the students there for their willingness to step outside of their “comfort zones” to hear him speak about Jesus — a line that earned the governor a rousing applause.
“One of the things I firmly believe in is that prayer is essential, absolutely essential to everything we do,” he said, before admitting his next request might make some people “a little uncomfortable.”
There was certainly a palpable shift in the atmosphere when Youngkin asked the thousands seated in the venue to reach across to those on either side of them — all mostly strangers — and hold hands. Soft whispers and uncomfortable laughs wafted through the largely quiet hall.
But people did it, encouraged by a governor who explained it is a longtime family tradition of his to hold hands when they petition God together.
As we held hands, Youngkin began to pray.
“Father God, thank You,” he started. “Thank You for every single person in this room. … Father, we know You gathered us here tonight for a reason. And You promise us when two or three are gathered in Your name, You will be among us, so we invite You. Father, we thank You for Charlie Kirk, we thank You for his life, we thank You for the way he lived it. We thank You for the way You inspired him and called him. We thank You for his courage to say, ‘Yes, send me.'”
He continued, “Father, we thank You that Your promise is real. That Charlie is with You in Your Kingdom. And yes, when he arrived there was a celebration and You said, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ Father, we pray for Erika and their family, we pray for her first as a mother, we pray for her as Charlie’s wife, we pray for You to give her strength to fulfill those essential callings on her. But we also pray, Father, for her new role as leader of Turning Point, that You will provide her the strength, the capabilities, and, by the way, the team to do all that You want Turning Point to do.”
“Finally, Father,” he added, “I ask Your blessing on everyone here. Will You stir in their hearts a moment to examine, a moment to engage, and the strength to endure. Father, will You shine Your face upon each and every one and may they know Your peace. Father, we pray all of this in the mighty name of Your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And all God’s people say, amen.”
As he walked away from the stage, Youngkin gestured behind him, to an empty chair — a chair set aside and left empty for Kirk. It was draped with a white “freedom” T-shirt just like the one the TPUSA founder was wearing the day he was murdered, a white “47” hat, and a single microphone.
Students began chanting “USA! USA! USA!” as they looked on at Kirk’s chair.
While much of the event was political — and those things matter — my fervent hope and prayer is God will use this continuing tour to draw people toward Himself, using speakers like Youngkin who will boldly share the Gospel to venues full of students searching not just for ideological debates but eternal hope.
You can watch the full livestream of the event below:
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