Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis named a debate trophy after Charlie Kirk to honor the recently slain CEO of Turning Point USA (TPUSA).

“We have worked hard to make Florida the national model for civics education,” DeSantis said.

“The Florida Civics and Debate Initiative reflects our commitment to fostering students’ appreciation for America’s founding principles. The champion of the next FCDI state championship will take home the Charlie Kirk prize, renamed in honor of a young man who embodied the principles of patriotism, civil discourse, and open debate. 

“The generous scholarship awards for the winner and other top competitors will be a great memorial to Kirk’s legacy.”

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DeSantis on Monday touted the state’s effort to elevate civics education and announced that the winner of the state’s national speech and debate championship will receive the Charlie Kirk trophy. The Florida Civics and Debate Initiative State Championship will be held April 5, 2026, at New College of Florida in Sarasota.

The winner of the debate will also get a $50,000 scholarship, and the runner-up will receive a $25,000 scholarship.

Kirk built a following over several years by touring the country to debate college students on culture war issues like gender ideology, racial divisions and the merits of Christian and American values.

“Maybe you will get out of your comfort zone and question your own assumptions and maybe see things a little bit differently. There’s a lot of value in critical thinking,” DeSantis added. 

MICHIGAN COUNTY’S PUSH TO ERECT CHARLIE KIRK STATUE FALLS SHORT AS UNIVERSITY SAYS NO

The governor also announced that Florida and TPUSA have formed a partnership to ensure Club America chapters can be established in any high school in the Sunshine State.

TPUSA calls the high school chapters Club America.

Club America chapters typically host meetings twice a month for conservative students to express their values and ideas. The chapters host activities based on themes that could entail patriotism, sports, taxes or other topics. For instance, Club America chapters hosted Free Speech Week and United We Stand for the week of Sept. 11. 

DeSantis’ comments came after the Florida Attorney General’s Office of Parental Rights announced last month it would take legal action against any public schools that block TPUSA chapters.

Attorney General James Uthmeier cited reports that some public schools were not allowing TPUSA organizations to form on their campuses.

Florida’s office has not confirmed to Fox News Digital any official reports of high schools or other educational institutions attempting to block TPUSA chapters.

Oklahoma made a similar effort to support TPUSA chapters. Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters pledged to establish a TPUSA chapter in every high school.

Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University pushed TPUSA to its greatest prominence yet. 

Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, was named CEO and chair of the board of TPUSA, which operates 900 college chapters and about 1,200 high school chapters.

There have also been several efforts to honor Kirk’s legacy, including a Michigan County commission voting to erect a statue in his memory. Oklahoma officials have reportedly discussed incorporating Kirk’s name into public higher education spaces, and a highway in Clermont, Florida, has been named after him.

DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Oct. 29th, students, faculty and others traveled to visit the oak-lined paths, red-brick halls and campus Lyceum at the University of Mississippi to see Vice President JD Vance at a Turning Point USA event in honor of the organization’s co-founder, Charlie Kirk, alongside his widow, Erika Kirk.

Lesley Lachman, TPUSA chapter president at Ole Miss, remarked that the university is “the forefront of what Turning Point USA chapters look like across the country.

“This really is the point in history where people are motivated and want to get involved in politics, and Gen Z is fired up and ready to go,” Lachman added.

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“The chapter has grown so significantly that every time we hold the chapter meeting, we hit capacity, and it’s a fire hazard, which has been an interesting, wonderful problem to have,” the college junior said. 

Citing a “complete surge in numbers” in the Ole Miss TPUSA chapter, which she said started at 200 people during the beginning of her presidency, the group has since grown to 1,500 students.  

The law student said “people want to be involved, and they want to be conservative.” 

MASSIVE CROWDS LINE UP IN THE RAIN AT OLE MISS FOR TURNING POINT USA EVENT WITH VP VANCE, ERIKA KIRK

“[Charlie Kirk’s] death has motivated people not only to get involved on social media, but also to get involved on campus,” she noted before mentioning the nonprofit’s newly minted CEO, Erika Kirk. 

“Erika Kirk is a force. She’s a fighter. I think what she’s gone through is unbelievable,” Lachman shared. 

“I think her motherly instincts really do give her the capability to be a wonderful leader, and I could see her growing this organization even bigger, especially with this big boom happening.” 

TURNING POINT USA CHAPTER DENIED OFFICIAL STATUS BY LOYOLA UNIVERSITY NEW ORLEANS STUDENT GOVERNMENT

There have been various reports from chapter presidents at different schools describing the same uptick in student involvement for the organization after Kirk’s Sept. 10 death. 

Despite growing support for the nonprofit across the nation, reports of hatred and acts of violence from TPUSA student members continue. 

“I think the work we’ve done on campus is really beautiful, but, really, the bigger message of this is the turning point, and the work is going to continue,” Lachman said. 

FIRST ON FOX: Fairfax County officials are in the hot seat after the Trump Department of Homeland Security says the county’s sanctuary policies allowed an illegal alien to walk free despite having been arrested ten times and having 19 criminal charges, including for malicious shooting and unlawful wounding.

The top Fairfax County official is disputing DHS’ characterization of it as a sanctuary county. However, Salvadoran national Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez, 27, was arrested 10 times and has been charged with 19 different crimes in just over seven years, between March 19, 2018, and July 18, 2025, according to DHS.

He was finally arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Oct. 24 after DHS said officials at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center declined to honor an immigration detainer it lodged against him on July 18.

The July detainer was not the first time Fairfax County ignored an ICE request to hold Melendez-Gonzalez. ICE also lodged a detainer against him in 2023. According to DHS, “Fairfax County officials refused to honor the immigration detainer and released this dangerous criminal alien back into the community.”

ICE NABS 3-TIME DEPORTED ILLEGAL ALIEN CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING A POLICE OFFICER: ‘GOOD RIDDANCE’

The agency said Melendez-Gonzalez entered the U.S. illegally in June 2015. An immigration judge ordered his removal from the country just over a year later in October 2016.

Despite this, Melendez-Gonzalez stayed in the country for just over ten years, racking up a long list of offenses in Virginia. He has arrests for three counts of malicious shooting, unlawful wounding, use of a firearm in commission of a felony, assault and battery, assault on a family member, grand larceny, trespassing, possessing a false government identification, public intoxication, disturbing the peace and making a false statement to a law enforcement officer.

He has two felony convictions for unlawful wounding stemming from a 2023 shooting, which carry sentences of three years in confinement. However, his sentence was reduced to a year.

According to a statement from the Fairfax County Police Department, detectives arrested Melendez-Gonzalez in August 2023 in a shooting that injured three men outside a business in Falls Church, Virginia.

Fox News Digital reached out to Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, a Democrat, for the reason for Melendez-Gonzalez’s sentence being suspended. A spokesperson for the commonwealth’s attorney’s office declined to comment, referring Fox News Digital to the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, which, the spokesperson said, “is responsible for handling ICE detainers.”

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Allyson Conroy, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, which runs the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, told Fox News Digital, “We did not have a judicial warrant on file from ICE for Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez for either date, Aug. 28, 2023, nor for July 18 of this year.”

Conroy said “the sheriff’s office could not maintain custody over Mr. Melendez-Gonzalez.”

Regarding the suspension of Melendez-Gonalez’s sentence, Conroy said that decision “is in the discretion of the judge or the assigned commonwealth’s attorney. You should contact those individuals for further information.”

Fox News Digital also reached out to representatives for Fairfax County regarding the Fairfax County Circuit Court’s decision but did not immediately receive a response.

Fairfax County Chairman Jeffrey McKay, also a Democrat, responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, saying, “Fairfax County, through the Board of Supervisors, does not control or make decisions regarding ICE detainers or judicial sentencing; those responsibilities fall to the sheriff and the courts, respectively.”

He said Fairfax County “does not consider itself a sanctuary jurisdiction and continues to follow all applicable federal and state laws.”

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DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, however, placed the blame squarely on the county’s sanctuary policies.

“These sanctuary policies make Virginians less safe,” McLaughlin told Fox News Digital.

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“Fairfax County refused to honor two ICE arrest detainers and chose to release this criminal back onto Virginia’s streets. Virginia sanctuary politicians protected this criminal illegal alien and allowed him to terrorize American citizens,” she added.

“Thanks to the brave men and women of ICE law enforcement, this serial violent criminal with 10 previous arrests is now off of Virginia’s streets.”