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Huge crowds gathered this week in Arizona around an electrifying speech given by political commentator Kirk. Kirk, at times, excoriated imperfect border policies, calling a larger populist movement surrounding Donald Trump, “bigger than an election.” The Turning Point USA founder had addressed its supporters at an event-that-was-part Trump campaign rally, part fundraiser for the conservative candidate for Arizona governor, Andy Biggs.
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“The turnout is amazing, this far ahead of the next presidential election, and our movement will not slow down,” Kirk began, casting the Trump operation as an ongoing cultural movement rather than just a campaign. He recalled the numbers at the different events held on campuses: allegedly, large numbers of people were registering to vote as conservatives. “These elections are steps towards an ultimate goal,” Kirk said, putting them in the context of milestones “to take back America.”
Kirk would frequently return to immigration as an issue, crediting Trump for breaking political tabu by calling border crossings an “invasion.” Kirk then proceeded to mock the previous Republican leadership for defending the so-called immigrant economic claims all of a sudden when increased criminality appeared: “Your friends started all of a sudden being hospitalized because of DUIs.” Kirk then brought former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio onstage “when he was one of the first that stood with Donald Trump” in a period when “all the Republican experts in this state were quick to…disavow President Trump’s rhetoric.”
Interwoven throughout his remarks on Arizona political history was Kirk’s recollection of the first Trump rally in Phoenix a decade ago and his complaints about the allegedly deceptive media coverage of crowd sizes. He went back to unsupported claims about Arizona’s 2020 election results, imploring attendees to “remember where you were on the November 2020 election night” when the networks called the state early for Biden. That was tied into the ongoing lawsuits against Trump allies, like Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer, concerning alternate elector schemes.
Then Kirk described the Arizona returns of 2024 — where Trump had won by nearly 200,000 votes but Democrats won various statewide offices — as both evidence of victory and as proof “We got five big problems in the state.” Listing Democratic officeholders, including Governor Katie Hobbs and Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, he pledged to turn Arizona “into the new Florida” under conservative tax and development policies, joking about using Arizona’s intense heat as xenocide against liberal migrants.
Kirk invested a large chunk of his time in endorsing Congressman Andy Biggs for governor, praising Biggs’ border stance and his willingness to upset GOP leadership. He planted Biggs as the Arizona continuation of the Trump legacy because Biggs was endorsed by Trump himself. Kirk gave a call to arms beyond the ballot box: “We’re here about building a movement.”
The combativeness of the speech was very evident from the reactions: “Finally someone saying what we all see happening at the border!” versus: “Fearmongering about immigrants while ignoring real issues.” Several continued to debate Kirk’s statements on election integrity, one stating, “Maricopa County audits confirmed Biden’s win,” another arguing, “They stopped counting when Trump was ahead.”
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This sort of event highlights Arizona as a home for Trump-friendly politics, a battleground of ideas, and, simultaneously, a symbolic frontier. Kirk provides his campaign rhetoric with interwoven conspiracy theories and gnawing cultural grievances that show how the movement has shifted from being an electoral effort to a self-styled “historic” crusade. This rally, while Trump leads all polls in the midst of his legal quagmires and the border crisis engrossing headlines, hints at the conservative activist bedrock farther out than the ballot box this year.