‘Fast and bright’: Former congressman Joe Walsh recalls campaigning with teen Charlie Kirk

Mundelein’s Joe Walsh was a maverick Tea Party Republican in a scrappy contest to defeat incumbent U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean when he met Charlie Kirk.

The Wheeling High School student showed up at one of Walsh’s campaign events and came back for another.

“He was 16 and instead of going out on dates on Saturday nights, he was obsessed with politics,” Walsh recalled Thursday.

That obsession led to Kirk’s founding the powerful, conservative Turning Point USA organization in 2012.

“He was a political nerd — it was his life — and he was incredibly fast and bright, enthusiastic and idealistic,” Walsh said.

Kirk, 31, was shot fatally Wednesday doing what he loved, debating with college students at a Utah campus.

“These are ugly times we live in now,” said Walsh, describing his emotions as “raw.”

“We must condemn political violence,” he said.

Walsh’s platform of fiscal conservatism resonated with the teenager and also with voters who delivered him a narrow victory in November 2010 over Democrat Bean.

Walsh and Kirk struck up a relationship on the campaign trail.

“He helped on the race … and I mentored him politically,” Walsh said, noting Kirk’s parents weren’t involved in politics. “He was like a son to me.”

After United States Military Academy West Point turned down Kirk’s application, “he was a little down,” but at same time “it was a sign,” Walsh remembered.

Kirk visited the new congressman in Washington, D.C., and they continued their exchange of ideas.

“His mission jived with what I did then,” Walsh said. “His mission back then was pushing free-market economic ideas on college campuses, exposing kids to free markets and free trade.”

Walsh lost his seat in 2012 but became a radio talk show host and Turning Point adviser.

The 2016 election caused a rift, though. Walsh ran against Donald Trump in the primary while Kirk supported the future president.

“We were as tight as can be,” Walsh said. “Trump runs and gets elected — Charlie became a big Trumper and I became a big never-Trumper, which ended the relationship. (The schism) was very common among Republicans and conservatives at the time.”

Kirk’s charisma with young male voters was essential to Trump’s success, thinks Walsh, now a Democrat who lives in Washington.

“He more than anyone helped Trump get elected in 2024.”

Asked if the recent spate of politically motivated violence reminds him of the 1960s, when John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and others were assassinated, Walsh demurred.

“I think it’s more divisive now,” he said.

With leaders in political silos, “it’s like the American people have to figure it out on our own.”