JD Vance’s friendship with Charlie Kirk shaped his path to becoming the Vice President

Vice President JD Vance reflected on his life-shaping friendship with Charlie Kirk on X hours after the conservative activist was fatally shot at an event at Utah Valley University.

Vance called Kirk, 31, “a true friend,” and revealed how Kirk had supported and helped mold his political career for years. Kirk, a close political ally of President Donald Trump, was an early supporter of Vance. They first connected through social media in 2017, and Vance said Kirk was one of the first people he called when he considered a run in Ohio for U.S. Senate in 2021.

“We talked through everything, from the strategy to the fundraising to the grassroots of the movement he knew so well,” Vance wrote. “He introduced me to some of the people who would run my campaign and also to Donald Trump Jr. ‘Like his dad, he’s misunderstood. He’s extremely smart, and very much on our wavelength.’ Don took a call from me because Charlie asked him too.”

When Vance and his family were navigating new challenges as he ran for vice president, Kirk was there to offer support. “Our kids, especially our oldest, struggled with the attention and the constant presence of the protective detail,” wrote Vance, who grew up in Middletown and maintains a home in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood.

“I felt this acute sense of guilt, that I had conscripted my kids into this life without getting their permission. And Charlie was constantly calling and texting, checking on our family and offering guidance and prayers.”

“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance wrote. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”

Vance said he was in a meeting at the White House when he heard Kirk had been shot, and described his conversation with Trump after he learned Kirk died. “I was talking to President Trump in the Oval Office today, and he said, ‘I know he was a very good friend of yours,'” Vance wrote. “I nodded silently, and President Trump observed that Charlie really loved his family. The president was right.”

The vice president canceled a 9/11 trip to New York and will instead visit Utah on Thursday to pay his respect to Kirk’s family with second lady Usha Vance.