The Wall Street Journal reports:

Before Charlie Kirk was fatally shot, he was readying for JD Vance to become the next president of the United States. Now, Erika Kirk is determined to make that happen.

In her kickoff remarks for Turning Point USA’s first major event since his death, Kirk’s widow told the 31,000 attendees: “We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible.”

The vice president will be the closing speaker Sunday at the mega conference held here. Behind the scenes, Turning Point is setting up infrastructure to boost his potential 2028 presidential bid. The conservative group is planning to put representatives in all of Iowa’s 99 counties ahead of the presidential primary. Iowa is an important early state in the presidential nominating process, and Turning Point is already trying to build grassroots support for Vance there, according to Tyler Bowyer, a top executive with the organization and a close friend of the late Kirk.

“Why mess around? Let the Democrats destroy each other in the primary process, while we benefit from the rare luxury of having a candidate that’s so clearly the front-runner,” Bowyer said in an interview backstage at the conference. [Continue reading…]