Texas County Drops Proposal to Rename Highway for Charlie Kirk After More Than 100 People Show Up to Commission Meeting

Meredith Seaver/College Station Eagle via AP

A proposal to rename a portion of a highway in Texas after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was dropped Monday after more than 100 local residents showed up to their county commission meeting.

Kirk, 31, founded TPUSA in 2012 and expanded it over the years since to a multimillion-dollar organization that had chapters at colleges across the country and held multiple conferences each year for young conservative activists. He was speaking at an event at Utah Valley University on September 10 when he was fatally shot.

Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested for Kirk’s murder and is facing seven charges, including aggravated murder. The state is seeking the death penalty.

In the aftermath of Kirk’s death, numerous plans were proposed across the country to honor his life, including statues, memorials, and renaming roads. Although Kirk has been lionized on the right since his death, he had many critics as well, and these proposals have sometimes met with loud opposition, especially where Kirk did not have a clear connection to the local area or the politics are less MAGA.

The renaming plan that was under consideration at the Bastrop County Commission on Monday was to designate a portion of FM 969 (a “farm-to-market road” about 30 minutes east of downtown Austin that is maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation) the “Charlie Kirk Corridor,” according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Bastrop County Commissioner David Glass put the proposal on the meeting agenda, along with some “background information”  that said the county “recognizes the importance of honoring distinguished individuals whose commitment to civic values, public engagement, and leadership has made a lasting contribution to political life in the State of Texas and the United States,” and “Kirk’s activism emphasized civic participation, free speech, and political engagement among youth, building a national network of student activists and influencing political discourse on college campuses and beyond.”

News of the potential renaming quickly spread in the local community, and according to the latest report by the Statesman, the commission meeting was “packed” with “[m]ore than 100 people.”

Glass asked to table the resolution at the outset, and therefore no action was taken. He told the Statesman that he had received many emails over the weekend about the resolution, without providing details.

“I’m going to take a breath and have some more conversations with my constituents,” said Glass, but said an later email to a Statesman reporter that he was not planning on resubmitting the renaming resolution.

“Not all of us are going to agree, but we can agree to disagree,” said Glass. “I absolutely don’t agree with everything Charlie Kirk said.”

Local residents had brought signs that simply said “NO” in capital letters, to show their opposition, and despite the matter being tabled, several still spoke up during the public comment portion of the meeting. Those who opposed the renaming received claps and cheers from the audience, according to the Statesman.

Many of those who spoke in opposition focused on Kirk’s comments on race and lack of local connection to the area:

Sumai Lokumbe, who spoke against the resolution, said comparing King and the work he did for civil rights to Kirk was “a disgrace.” “We need to start promoting equality, we need to start loving each other,” she said.

If FM 969 needs to be renamed, Lokumbe said, it should be named after someone who did something for the Bastrop community.

Dock Jackson, the Democratic candidate for county judge, said that after enslaved Blacks were freed in 1865, they established a freedom colony in the area of FM 969. “With this history and the fact that Charlie Kirk to my knowledge has no relatives or connection to Bastrop County, I do not feel the court should pass a resolution endorsing this street name change,” he said.

“Charlie Kirk was one of the most polarizing figures in politics,” said [Ruth Todd]. Naming a road in his honor does not unite the community, she said. “It sends a message to a significant portion of our community that their comfort in their home county does not matter.”

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