An attendee of Chaire Kirk’s vigil at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat on Sept 17. 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — Conservative and liberal students at Nebraska colleges say they want to turn down the temperature on the heated political dialogue dominating national conversations in the weeks since the killing of Charlie Kirk.
But they’ve got their work cut out.
The call for a return to civil discourse among young Nebraskans comes against the backdrop of President Donald Trump pledging to use the federal government to investigate political foes on the “radical left.”
Ethnie Barnhouse, the president of University of Nebraska-Lincoln chapter of Kirk’s political organization Turning Point USA, which was designed to engage college students, said she hopes more young conservatives will “be bold and be courageous” and speak openly with others about their views.
“They’re going to think you’re some evil person … I want people not to be afraid to have those conversations,” Barnhouse said at a UNL campus vigil honoring Kirk days after he was killed. “Because a lot of the time, when people think that about you, it’s just because they haven’t talked to you, and they don’t actually know what you believe.”
After the vigil — whose speakers included Nebraska volleyball middle blocker Rebekah Allick and Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican – Barnhouse took questions from fellow students and community members who wanted to get more involved with Turning Point. Barnhouse said she was surprised by the turnout and level of interest.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Turning Point USA president Ethnie Barnhouse talk before a Chaire Kirk vigil at UNL on Sept. 17. 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)
Campus conservatives at some of the state’s largest schools in Lincoln and Omaha credited Kirk for encouraging them to be more open about their political views in what many described as environments hostile to conservatism. Several said they plan to make sharper efforts to organize young people while also calling for more civil dialogue with people across the political spectrum.
Young liberals also hope for more civil disagreement, rather than the rhetoric often seen on social media and among politicians. Troy Kallhoff, president of the UNL chapter of the Young Democrats, said he was deeply disturbed that people would try to “resolve political divide and political grievance” with violence.
“Regardless of how much I disagree with him or any other political activist or politician, I would never wish for them to be murdered or killed,” Kallhoff said.
Kirk was shot during a Turning Point event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, in early September. The 22-year-old man accused of killing Kirk, Tyler Robinson, had sent text messages to his romantic partner that he had “had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred” and that “some hate can’t be negotiated out,” according to Utah prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty.
The Kirk shooting was the latest instance of political violence in the U.S. An arsonist burned the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion in April. Two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed in Washington, D.C. in May. A Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband were shot and killed in June. A Georgia man was indicted in June for allegedly making threats across state lines against Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Nebraska U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer.
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Dona-Gene Barton, a UNL political science professor who studies political behavior, said political violence isn’t new in American history. But she said this political moment is different because of high levels of “affective polarization.”
“It’s a context where the rhetoric and the effect of polarization among political elites [and] average citizens is [already] at a dangerous [level] to begin with,” Barton said.
Kirk and Turning Point, which he founded in 2012, were credited with mobilizing younger voters to support Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Trump made gains with young people, a demographic Democrats previously dominated, which helped him win the popular vote.
But Kirk also appealed to some in the Republican base with his statements directed at minorities. He criticized LGBTQ rights, suggested more women should stay home and not work and criticized the Civil Rights Act of 1964, along with some of Martin Luther King Jr.’s work.
Among Turning Point’s best-known projects was the “Professor Watchlist,” which published the names of college professors in a searchable format by categories including “anti-Christian views,” “feminism,” “climate alarmist” and “racial ideology.”
Despite the controversies, many young conservatives, including UNL student Zoey Salem, credited Kirk for engaging students and encouraging them to speak freely.
Flowers left for Chaire Kirk after a vigil at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Sept 17. 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)
“Even as a conservative, I didn’t agree with everything he said, but that wasn’t really the point of Charlie Kirk to me,” said Salem. “The point was that he was giving a platform to all people.”
Kallhoff, of the UNL Young Democrats, said he hopes that after Kirk’s assassination people can “come together and have civilized conversations” and understand that “we’re all trying to make the country better.”
Creighton University students Emma Smith and Hannah Sobczyk said people need to stop hiding behind social media and start having face-to-face conversations again. At the end of the day, Sobczyk said, people need to respect that people have different political beliefs.
“We’re all people,” Smith said.
Barton, the political scientist, said she hopes politicians will tone down the rhetoric used in response to Kirk’s death, because it “doesn’t do any good for trying to calm the tensions.”
“In the past, political elites, when you had incidents of political violence in this country, they would try to be more unifying,” Barton said. “Some … have responded by trying to weaponize this event.”
At UNL, Barnhouse said she is focused on honoring Kirk’s legacy.
“My life would look very different if it weren’t for Charlie Kirk,” Barnhouse said.
Kallhoff said the next generation is tired of the political divide and government stagnation
“The only option is for it to get better,” Kallhoff said.
