Yet such a figure on the left is probably impossible. Kirk’s preternatural charisma and otherworldly fundraising abilities no doubt played a major role in his rise: During his early days of building TPUSA, stories circulated of skeptical megadonors writing five-figure checks after even the briefest of encounters with the 18-year-old Kirk.
But a figure like Kirk is probably only possible within the unique circumstances of Trump’s GOP. Throughout his career, Kirk’s real superpower was intuiting — and deftly exploiting — the institutional hollowness of the Republican Party under Trump. Beginning in 2016, he systematically built political organizations to fulfill the functions once served by the party infrastructure that Trump destroyed. In the place of anemic campus groups like College Republicans, Kirk built Turning Point USA into a grassroots powerhouse with chapters on ov
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