The city of Scottsdale, Arizona, is looking to memorialize slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Scottsdale’s city council voted 5-2 on Monday to direct City Manager Greg Caton to “investigate and report back to the Council on the process for erecting a Charlie Kirk memorial,” according to minutes from the Nov. 3 meeting.
“Charlie Kirk is a national treasure, and we have an opportunity to honor him,” Vice Mayor Adam Kwasman, a staunch conservative, told AZ Central. “He inspired a nation, he lived a truly American life, accomplishing a lion-sized amount in his short time on this Earth.”
Kirk moved the headquarters of his right-wing advocacy organization Turning Point USA to Phoenix in 2019. He lived in Scottsdale with his wife, Erika Kirk. Scottsdale is the third city in the Phoenix area to propose a memorial to Kirk, following his assassination on a Utah college campus earlier this year. The city of Fountain Hills considered a proposal to rename a community center in Kirk’s name. It was rejected last month. In Phoenix, the city council rejected a similar proposal to rename a bridge after Kirk.
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Nationally, conservatives have rushed to solidify the image of Kirk as a martyr for their cause. President Donald Trump posthumously awarded Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Vice President JD Vance sat in on Kirk’s podcast for an episode. The Trump administration has also clamped down on criticism of the late organizer and media personality, with high-level advisers promising backlash against left-wing organizations in the wake of his death.
