A general view of a wreath laid by mourners outside the US Embassy in Pretoria on Sept. 11, 2025, following the fatal shooting of US youth activist and influencer Charlie Kirk while speaking during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Credit: Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images via TNS
An increase in party polarization and bipartisan political violence are the top reasons Ohio State experts in political science and extremism attribute to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
A right-wing activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA — a non-profit organization promoting conservative ideals among young people — Kirk was assassinated Wednesday during an event at Utah Valley University.
Kirk, who visited Ohio State in 2023, is credited with an increase in conservatism throughout the Gen Z population. His YouTube channel garnered over 1 billion views and he often spoke at colleges across the country.
Dominik Stecula, an assistant professor of communication and political science, said there have been other political leaders who have been targeted and murdered. However, with the growing party polarization and hostile discourse, polling has revealed that there has been an increase in political violence.
“Increasingly, we find ourselves in a position where politics is just so tribal, so polarized, and our discourse is increasingly dialed up,” Stecula said. “Things that used to be out of bounds in terms of rhetoric are now mainstream.”
Laura Dugan, a professor in sociology and expert in extremism and violence, said she does not condone violence and did not expect Kirk to be killed, but was not surprised someone attacked him.
“He’s a pretty controversial and hostile figure, and his rhetoric attacks lots of different kinds of people,” Dugan said. “He’s very divisive, and so I’m not surprised that somebody attacked him. I was surprised he was shot and killed.”
Dugan said left-aligned individuals have not been historically violent — if they are, they tend to target industries and businesses rather than individual people. For example, Dugan said there were recent arson attacks on Tesla dealerships after Elon Musk became publicly associated with Trump.
“I think [the political climate] is setting the stage for dramatic changes that have been happening in the federal government that often go against democratic norms,” Dugan said.
Christopher McKnight Nichols, the Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in national security studies and professor of history, echoed this polarization and its effects in an email.
“Gun violence in general and our contentious polarized political world inundated with heightened personal attacks and violence rhetoric are going hand in hand, as evidenced by mass shootings in schools and churches includ[ing] targeted acts of violence against particular people and groups,” Nichols said.
Nichols said the day of Kirk’s shooting is a tragic day in American politics and society and mentioned his views on what the next step is.
“It is hard to be hopeful that politicians today or in the near future will do anything meaningful, I am very sorry to say, to ameliorate our current overheated politics and violent political culture,” Nichols said.
Other university faculty feel that these acts of violence are raising a heavy concern: that political violence is going to be normalized.
Trevor Brown, dean of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, said in an email the increasingly prevalent acts of violence have raised concerns surrounding the social acceptability of political violence.
“Sadly, events like Charlie Kirk’s assassination have become more common,” Brown said. “My fear is that such acts become accepted by a larger part of the population as a reasonable response to political disagreements.”
Dugan said the U.S. is in an unfamiliar state in recent history, but other countries have experienced ideological violence.
“We’re in an era where we’re outside what we’ve seen in recent history in the United States,” Dugan said. “But history in other countries in the past has shown that when the government goes so far in one direction, that there’s going to be an uprising. That uprising often takes the form of ideological violence.”
