WASHINGTON (AP) — The fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at an event in Utah had particular resonance for public figures who have experienced political violence themselves.
Kirk, who served as chief executive and cofounder of the youth organization Turning Point USA, made frequent appearances on college campuses and in other settings, engaging in political dialogue with students in public settings.
Several leaders who have survived public attacks or had family members victimized joined in bipartisan condemnation of the attack on Kirk.
Nancy Pelosi
The former House speaker’s husband was seriously injured at their California home in 2022 by a man wielding a hammer, who authorities said was a believer in conspiracy theories.
Pelosi, a Democrat, posted that “the horrific shooting today at Utah Valley University is reprehensible. Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation.”
President Donald Trump shakes hands with moderator Charlie Kirk, during a Generation Next White House forum at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Thursday, March 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Donald Trump
The president sustained a minor ear injury when he was shot at a campaign event last year. He was also the target of a failed assassination attempt while playing golf in Florida. He had a close relationship with Kirk and announced his passing Wednesday on his Truth Social site.
Trump described Kirk on Truth Social as a “great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!”
He also posted, “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”
Gabrielle Giffords
The former U.S. representative, a Democrat, suffered a serious brain injury from a 2011 shooting while meeting with constituents at a shopping center in her Arizona congressional district. She survived and has taken up the cause of fighting gun violence.
Giffords posted on social media that she was “horrified” to hear of Kirk’s shooting.
“Democratic societies will always have political disagreements,” she wrote, “but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence.”
From left, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., speak during a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Steve Scalise
The House majority leader, a Louisiana Republican, was shot at practice for a charity baseball game involving members of Congress in the Virginia suburbs in 2017. The man who attacked Scalise had grievances against Trump and Republicans and was later fatally shot by police.
Scalise asked people on the social media platform X to “please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk after this senseless act.”
Josh Shapiro
The Pennsylvania governor, a Democrat and potential national candidate, was evacuated with his family from the governor’s mansion earlier this year after a man broke into the building and set a fire that caused significant damage.
“We must speak with moral clarity,” Shapiro wrote on X. “The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.”
Gretchen Whitmer
The Michigan governor, a Democrat, was the subject of a failed kidnapping plot by right-wing extremists who hoped to ignite a civil war. Two men were imprisoned for their 2020 attempt to kidnap the governor during her first term.
“We should all come together to stand up against any and all forms of political violence,” Whitmer wrote on social media.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., prepares for a television interview outside the West Wing of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Health and Human Services secretary appeared to invoke his family’s losses as he reacted to Kirk’s killing. Kennedy’s father, for whom he was named, was assassinated in 1968 as he sought the Democratic presidential nomination. Kennedy Sr. was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and an advocate for civil rights legislation as attorney general during his brother’s presidency and after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
“Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era,” Kennedy wrote on social media. He called Kirk a “relentless and courageous crusader for free speech.”