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Next Charlie Kirk? What Brilyn Hollyhand said about ‘replacing’ late TPUSA founder
Brilyn Hollyhand is a teen conservative political commentator, who kicked off a 10-stop campus tour with TPUSA, in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination.
Brilyn Hollyhand, who's widely been hailed as Charlie Kirk's protege, is now being slammed online as ‘not a replacement’ of the late Turning Point USA founder. Hollyhand, the 19-year-old conservative political commentator, kicked off his 10-stop campus tour with TPUSA on September 26.
Kirk, 31, was assassinated while attending an event at the Utah Valley University, on September 10. In the wake of Kirk's assassination, Hollyhand had vowed to get ‘louder’ despite claiming that death threats against him were mounting.
“A SOLD-OUT auditorium isn’t a bad way to kick off my 10-stop campus tour! University of Arkansas, thank y’all so much for having me and for coming out tonight! HUNDREDS of students packed the room and we couldn’t even fit everybody in! These are the next Charlie Kirks,” he said on X, sharing a video of a packed auditorium.
However, many on social media were quick to decry him. “The first thing is to stop Brilyn Hollyhand. He's not Charlie Kirk,” one person said. “Brilyn Hollyhand would NOT be a good replacement for Charlie Kirk,” remarked another. “Brilyn Hollyhand is a child trying to fill the shoes of a giant,” yet another person said.
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Despite the backlash, Hollyhand and Kirk go back a long way, and the young political activist even spoke who could potentially ‘replace’ Kirk.
What Brilyn Hollyhand said about Charlie Kirk
Kirk first came on Hollyhand's YouTube channel when the latter was just eleven years old, and had a follower count of seven.
“You’re much further ahead of the curve than I was. So you’re way ahead of the game,” Kirk had joked back in 2017.
A week after Kirk's assassination, Hollyhand wrote “You hear that noise? That’s not chatter. That’s the sound of my peers breaking chains — the chains of silence, conformity, and decades of blindly following the Democrat Party. And it’s the sound of a revival being born from tragedy.”
He described Kirk as ‘a mentor to me, a friend to so many, and a fighter for a country he loved with his whole being’.
“He wasn’t just a conservative leader. He wasn’t just a voice on TV. He was a walking, talking beacon of hope. Charlie believed in faith, in family, and in the power of conversation. He spent his life proving that courage is contagious, that one man standing tall can give thousands the strength to stand alongside him. And now, even in his passing, he is doing the same,” Hollyhand continued.
The young political commentator added that Kirk's mission was built on conviction, and that he went around campuses to invite questions, not shout down political opponents. “The day civil discourse dies, a civil war begins,” Hollyhand recalled Kirk tell him, when the former was just a fourth grader.
“Charlie Kirk believed America was worth saving. He believed my generation was worth investing in. He believed courage was worth the cost. And now, in his absence, it’s our responsibility to carry that torch,” Kirk's touted protege further said.
Speaking to The Telegraph, he shared that he had remained friends with Kirk and spoke to him up until the morning of his passing. “There’s a lot of people that you interview that you never speak to again, but Charlie and I stayed friends, he’s been my mentor. I talked to him up until the morning of his passing. He was that person who cheered me on and I could go to for advice, and we were just there for each other,” Hollyhand told the publication.
Hollyhand is now a freshman at Auburn University studying political science, but he founded The Truth Gazette – a conservative political website – when he was in fifth grade. A year later, he began hosting his own podcast. In January 2023, Hollyhand was made co-chair of the Republican National Committee’s Youth Advisory Council. At 18, he published his first book. Hollyhand is now one of the most followed conservative influencers of his generation, with over half a million followers across various social media platforms.
However, Hollyhand has not said anything about him being the ‘next Charlie Kirk’. In fact, addressing the matter, he said to The Telegraph, “Everybody’s talking about, who’s the next Charlie Kirk? Who can replace Charlie Kirk? There is no replacement for Charlie Kirk, there’s nobody that can fill his shoes."
