On a cool October evening in the suburbs of Phoenix, capital city of the US state of Arizona, a young ultra-conservative influencer turns his mic on and welcomes the viewers flocking to his TikTok live stream.
“Hi Dylan, great to see you! What’s up, Chase? Thanks to everyone moderating the chat!”
Carson Carpenter, a 21-year-old political science graduate from Arizona State University (ASU) is welcoming participants for an online discussion entitled, “Liberals debate me one-on-one”.
The style of the debate is inspired by Charlie Kirk, a leading figure among ultra-conservative youth who was fatally shot at a speaking event at Utah college on September 10, 2025.
Read moreCharlie Kirk: Trump's fiery far-right 'youth whisperer'
“TikTok live streams aren’t my favourite thing, but at least they bring in a lot of people. There are also a lot of trolls or people who attack me, but that’s part of the game,” Carpenter said with a wry smile, describing his stance as “Jesus First and America Only”.
The debate topic for the evening is particularly explosive: the alleged drugging and gang rape of a female student at Cornell University in 2024 by seven fraternity members.
When an online user joins the discussion on the microphone, Carpenter, in the style of Kirk, immediately attacks him.
“So, you think the accuser is innocent in this case?” he asks him in a deliberately provocative tone.
‘I hope I can carry out his legacy’
Carpenter then accuses the mainstream media of having “protected” the victim. The exchange grows increasingly tense as the disagreement unfolds before hundreds of viewers. Live on air, allegations of gang rape are reduced to a series of provocative questions, in which participants are invited to take sides.
Indeed Carpenter, who has amassed some 19,000 followers on TikTok, has now mastered the mechanics of these online confrontations. He asks controversial questions, takes assertive stances, and finds ways to put his opponents on the defensive.
He uses precisely the same debating tactics that far-right influencer Kirk popularised on American college campuses with his “Prove Me Wrong” concept, inviting students to challenge his ideas on camera. The most incendiary clips would then go viral.
Read moreMan accused of killing Charlie Kirk to face murder trial and possible death penalty
As former president of the ASU chapter of the “College Republicans”, Carpenter worked closely with Kirk, founder of the powerful ultra-conservative youth organisation Turning Point USA.
“I think the Charlie Kirk legacy is just making people apply their thought into reality when it comes to the country as a whole,” said Carpenter, who now heads Off The Record USA, a right-wing media brand he co-founded.
“I hope I can carry out his legacy in the way that he saw it … I don't want to say I would take credit for what his legacy should be, because that can only be determined by him and Jesus.
“There's nobody else that's going to be like Charlie ever,” he added.
The day after his TikTok live stream, Carpenter left his recording studio to head to Paradise Valley Park, in the northern part of Phoenix. He is part of the “CleanUp America” tour organised by Turning Point USA, which carries out a cleanup effort followed by a community festival.
In Phoenix, where Turning Point USA was co-founded by Kirk in 2012, the festival is a must-attend for local young conservatives.
Once the cleanup is complete, participants gather in front of the stage, some still wearing their fluorescent yellow vests. Although the atmosphere is meant to be family-friendly, politics is never far away.
Read moreMAGA civil war steals the spotlight at 'AmericaFest' conference
In a clear nod to US President Donald Trump’s rallying slogan of “Make America Great Again”, participants hand out red caps with the slogan “Make America Clean Again”.
The speakers say prayers, and make repeated references to Christ and the American nation, while participants reflect in silence during the songs.
Kirk himself is frequently honoured. Several minutes of prayer are held in his memory, while a Tesla Cybertruck adorned with his image and the slogan "We the people stand with Charlie Kirk" is parked near the entrance.
‘Big shoes to fill’
On stage, the speakers make one reactionary speech after another. Anthony Watson, a former skeleton racer who competed for Jamaica at the 2018 Winter Olympics and now works with Turning Point USA, insists that the event is not “a forum for debate” and that it is not about “promoting any particular ideology”.
But ultra-conservative influencer Taylor Sharp is not so ideologically cautious. Wearing an “America the Beautiful” cap, he tells the audience that abortion is “the genocide of our children in the womb” and called for Planned Parenthood (Do you need me to ID this or is it obvious?) to be defunded.
In a similar spirit to Kirk, he organises debates on campuses across Arizona in a bid to convince students to join the conservative camp.
For Sharp, who now has more than 168,000 followers on Instagram, Kirk’s death has left a void that no one seems able to fill.
“Kirk was the only one holding this MAGA divide together with civil discourse,” he said.
“Now we have people going after each other on Twitter every single day. And it's like a war room now instead of being peaceful and actually, you know, doing it for the betterment of the movement.”
Indeed, amid the tributes to Kirk, there are growing divisions within the MAGA ranks on issues such as Israel and anti-Semitism.
“There's people that can unify but it's big shoes to fill, you know,” Sharp acknowledged.
“I just don't see that person yet,” he added.
But not all the festival’s participants shared his doubts about a successor to Kirk.
When the American national anthem was played, Daniel Fisher, 26, a strategy director at Turning Point USA, stood to attention with an American flag in one hand and his cap pressed to his heart in the other.
Fisher believes that Charlie’s widow, Erika Kirk, who became president of Turning Point USA immediately after his killing, is his natural heir.
When Erika Kirk made a surprise appearance on stage, she was met with rapturous applause from the audience.
But after speaking for just a few moments, she broke down in tears in the arms of attendees who had come to greet her.
Since her husband’s death, Erika Kirk has taken on an extremely high-profile role, celebrated by her supporters but accused by her detractors of making a spectacle of her grief.
Fisher, however, had the utmost faith in her.
“That was Charlie Kirk's wife, and I don't believe that he made an error when he chose his wife. I feel with God backing her up, she can do the impossible,” he said.
Yet while the festival rallied committed ultra-conservative supporters, it also sought to attract voters beyond its usual sphere of influence.
Daisy Fernandez-Herrera, 22, a master’s student at Grand Canyon University, was one such example.
She described herself as an independent voter and was persuaded by her roommate to make the trip.
“I didn't really have much of an opinion on Turning Point USA,” she confided, wearing a badge emblazoned with “Clean Up America”.
“I heard like a lot of things, but I'm always open for like either side, just like getting my own opinion. I just like their purpose when it comes to their faith, like bringing the community together is always a blessing.
Miles Jetton, 24, a student at the same university, also commented on the religious aspect of the rally.
“I do believe that it is so important to have our foundation in Christ because if you have people … their ideologies are all out of whack, you're going to have a country that's all out of whack. And I think we're starting to see that in America,” he said.
For others, like Ange Perez, 25, the path to Turning Point USA began on social media. An administrative assistant and member of Young Professionals – the organisation’s branch dedicated to networking among young adults – she came across Kirk while scrolling through reels on YouTube.
“I immediately liked his quick wit, his intelligence, his ability to debate, and the strength of his arguments, backed by facts. He’s a role model for me, in a world where I feel that people my age aren’t well-informed enough,” she said.
For Perez, Kirk’s influence extends beyond politics and into religion.
“I wasn't always a Christian, but I became really curious about Christianity when I would hear him talk about it. So then I started going to church,” she said.
My sister invited me and after that I decided to buy my first Bible […] And if everything is true in the Bible, which it is, and if that's where he derived Kirk’s ideas from, then God's ways are good,” she added.
In Paradise Valley Park, participants are packing up. The booths are emptying, and families are heading back to their cars. For Turning Point, the stakes now go beyond TikTok videos and rallies: they have to mobilise supporters into votes on the ground.
As the midterm elections approach, the organisation – which claims to have more than 1,500 campus chapters – is seeking to mobilise its network in support of Republican candidates.
In Arizona, it is backing Andy Biggs, a staunchly conservative Trump ally who is running for governor against incumbent Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Young influencer Sharp, for his part, has no doubt about which direction the state should take.
“Arizona is on a declining … depressing slope that is going into the ground because of Katie Hobbs, he said. She doesn't actually do anything for our state. Andy Biggs is the only person on the ticket that can actually fix this,” he said.
However, Turning Point’s strategy has not gained broad support among ultra-conservatives, even among Republicans, with some criticising the group for backing candidates who are too radical to win over moderate voters.
The organisation also faces another challenge in the erosion of support for Trump among some young voters. Only 49% of 2024 Trump voters aged 19 to 34 continued to approve of his actions in October 2026, according to a study published in early October by the Pew Research Center.
Carpenter, though a MAGA supporter, made no secret of his disappointment with the president.
“Trump has made some mistakes with not just the implementation […] but it's not keeping to the promises of his campaign,” he said.
“And that's why you've seen Gen Z's support wane, right? The war in Iran, the war in Ukraine not being ended, tariffs not being fully implemented, and a whole slew of other things.”
Carpenter expects that the Republicans will be defeated in the midterm elections.
“The people that are saying that Republicans are going to somehow win a supermajority … have not sobered themselves up to the reality of political history in the United States,” he said.
This article has been adapted from the original in French.