Kristina Parker was inundated with phone calls and text messages Wednesday afternoon as word spread that conservative activist and influencer Charlie Kirk had been shot on a Utah campus.

At first it wasn’t clear if Kirk, the 31-year-old leader of Turning Point USA and a frequent speaker on college campuses, would survive. But as she was driving to a meeting of her church youth group in central Maine later in the day, a friend called to tell her he had died.

Twenty-four hours later, Parker said she was still in shock. Just a month earlier she had met Kirk at a speaking engagement in Old Orchard Beach.

“I think like everyone else, I’m still kind of wrapping my head around it,” the 19-year-old from Waterville said in an interview Thursday. “I think when things got quiet, that’s when I started thinking about how great he was and how much we’re going to miss him.”

Kirk had amassed a following among conservative Christians — especially among the younger generation — through social media and his “prove me wrong” debates, and was an ally of President Donald Trump. He was also a provocative figure who frequently drew liberal criticism for his controversial views on issues like immigration, gun control and gender identity.

Kirk was shot while speaking to a crowd at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, where authorities on Thursday were still searching for his killer.

Some right-wing figures have seized on Kirk’s death as the latest assault in a war on their values, including Trump, who blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s killing. Other leaders on both the left and right are calling for a de-escalation of political violence.

Meanwhile, young conservatives in places as far from the shooting as Maine are mourning Kirk’s death.

Students react on Maine campuses

“His beliefs are the same as mine,” said Seth Watson, a second-year student at Thomas College in Waterville. “Like the way he talks about everyday things, like boys in women’s sports, abortion, the border patrol and the way he did Kamala versus Trump — I really liked everything he did.”

Watson, 21, of South Carolina, said when he found out about Kirk’s death in class, a wave of heat came over him and he “just didn’t feel right for 30 seconds.”

He listened to Kirk on YouTube, TikTok and his podcast. He said Kirk helped him decide to vote for Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

Another Thomas student, Kayla Rollins, 18, agreed with Kirk’s beliefs on gender equality and globalism, a national policy on global politics decried by Kirk and far-right advocates.

“He’s like the American dream, he made that reality and specified what’s wrong in this world,” said Rollins, of Wells.

Zak Asplin, the chair of the Maine College Republicans and president of the Bowdoin College Conservatives and Republicans, denounced political violence in the wake of Kirk’s killing.

“It was a horrible, horrible day if you’re a conservative activist on a college campus,” Asplin said.

He said the group is taking safety precautions ahead of a Bowdoin Conservatives event next week marking the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel.

“Campus safety and security will be there, counseling services will be there as well, because it will be quite an emotional event … and the local PD are also well aware that the event is happening,” Asplin said, adding that Kirk’s killing “affirmed” the need for security at the event.

Kirk had just visited Old Orchard Beach

Kirk’s visit to Utah Valley University Wednesday was part of his American Comeback Tour, which was also scheduled to include visits to other large, public campuses this month including Colorado State, Virginia Tech and Louisiana State.

Just a month ago, however, he was speaking at a much smaller venue in Maine. Maine Civic Action, a nonprofit sister organization of the conservative Maine Policy Institute think tank, hosted Kirk on Aug. 2 at the Dunegrass Golf Club in Old Orchard Beach.

“We wanted to bring Charlie to Maine because he’s a voice for the young generation,” said Jacob Posik, political director for Maine Civic Action. “There’s a lot of young conservatives out there who look to him as a thought leader and I would say even more broadly than that, there’s a lot of Americans and Mainers of all political stripes who, maybe they don’t agree with everything Charlie says, but there’s a lot of things he says that resonate with them.”

Posik said the event, which was limited to around 300 people, quickly sold out.

In a video of Kirk posted on Instagram by the Maine Wire, an online publication associated with the Maine Policy Institute, shortly afterwards, Kirk said the biggest thing on his mind in Maine was “how the state is changing demographically because of mass migration.”

“It’s a major problem,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we’re a hater or racist. It means that you love your state and you don’t want to see it be taken over by people who have no connection to this beautiful place.”

Parker, the Waterville resident who also works for the Maine Republican Party, was at the Old Orchard Beach event. She co-founded a Kennebec County chapter of Kirk’s organization Turning Point USA through its student program a few years ago.

Parker said she has always been somewhat involved in conservative politics and she appreciated Kirk’s encouragement of young people to get involved in political discussions, as well as a lot of his policy. She has organized a vigil for Kirk at 6 p.m. Friday at Capitol Park in Augusta, and said she is working with police to ensure there is adequate security at the event.

“Charlie really believed in young folks,” said Parker. “It’s nice to have someone have confidence in you. And he was fearless in his faith. He would never back down in that regard. And he was very open to conversation.”

“I looked up to him a lot,” she added.

Maine political leaders condemn violence

Critics of Kirk say he stirred hate and violence with his opinions. He was critical of gay and transgender rights and had called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a “mistake” that he said had been turned into “an anti-white weapon,” according to reporting in the New York Times.

He also once argued that some gun deaths are “worth it” if it meant protecting the Second Amendment.

Leaders in Maine said regardless of his views, Kirk did not deserve to be killed.

“It’s OK to disagree with someone, but it’s not OK to kill them because of it,” said Rep. Reagan Paul, a 26-year-old Republican lawmaker from Winterport who said Kirk was a role model for her.

“Charlie, by contrast, defended his views honorably, inviting debate everywhere he went,” Paul said in an email. “You could hate what he had to say, and tell him so, but he respected your right to do that.”

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, also condemned Kirk’s violent death Wednesday.

“In America, differing views — regardless of who holds them and how much you may detest them — should never be met with violence,” Mills said on the social media site X. “I am horrified by what has happened to Charlie Kirk.”

House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, was among other Maine leaders who posted remembrances of Kirk on social media, saying in a Facebook post that his 21-year-old daughter was inspired by Kirk.

Robin Faulkingham, Faulkingham’s daughter, said it was a nightly routine for her to scroll through Kirk’s videos on social media.

“I just think he’s impacted my generation so much,” Robin Faulkingham said in an interview. “He’s lit a fire in today’s youth to want more and better for this generation.”

She said many of her friends are scared of the current political climate and what it will mean for their children.

“I think it’s both terrifying and disturbing that there are people who can’t see someone beyond personal political views,” Faulkingham said. “I can’t stop going to the thought that Charlie wasn’t just a political figure. That was just something he did. He was also a husband, a father, a son. I can’t put into words the heartache I feel for his two kids that don’t get to have their father come home.”

Staff Writers Hannah Kaufman, Katie Langley and Emily Duggan contributed to this report.