Newsom Reflects on Conversation With Charlie Kirk: Praises His 'Sincerity' and Focus on Young Men

California Gov. Gavin Newsom revisited his March conversation with conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, praising what he described as Kirk's "sincerity" and "grace." Speaking with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein on "The Ezra Klein Show," Newsom said he was struck by how seriously Kirk took organizing and by his willingness to debate opponents civilly.

"I thought there was a deeper sincerity than I had anticipated, in terms of his point of view and his perspective. A willingness to engage with people he disagreed with, a willingness to debate — to the extent that he thought — in a fair and balanced way. I think there’s grace in that," Newsom told Klein.

Newsom said Kirk had a clear grasp of the economic and emotional struggles afflicting many young men, and that he channeled that understanding into organizing and giving younger men a sense of hope and belonging. The governor described a growing sense of nihilism among people in their 20s and 30s — a generation, he said, that may not materially outpace their parents — and recounted hearing that frustration firsthand while attending TwitchCon to listen to gamers and young men.

Charlie Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA, was killed Sept. 10 while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.

"I went down to TwitchCon and was there with a lot of gamers, really trying to get into the belly of the beast of understanding where young men are and this pain and suffering, this isolation, that's turning increasingly to grievance — that they're never going to do better than their parents," Newsom said. He pointed to economic pressures such as shared housing and unaffordable rent as drivers of anxiety and despair.

While Newsom acknowledged that political figures on the right, including Kirk and former President Donald Trump, have tapped into that discontent, he argued that identifying the problem is not the same as providing substantive policy solutions.

"Of course, I only had an hour-and-a-half conversation with Charlie, but where it seems to me to have fallen short with Turning Point USA and the MAGA movement is they don’t have a prescription to actually address the real and substantive issues, but they sure as hell identify the problem," he said.

In September, Newsom said the assassination of Kirk had not swayed his political strategy going forward amid concerns about the impact of inflammatory political rhetoric.

Klein asked whether Newsom himself had described conservative-style remedies such as tariffs, stricter borders or appeals to Christianity. Newsom sidestepped that framing but emphasized how central faith was to Kirk. He recalled a moment in the interview when an offhand "Jesus!" elicited a visible reaction and made him realize how deeply Kirk's faith informed his organizing.

Although Newsom described himself as more spiritual than religious, he said he sees value in movements that offer community, belonging and identity — areas where he said Democrats have been outmaneuvered on college campuses and elsewhere.

Newsom cited worrying social indicators when describing the scope of the problem: higher male suicide rates, elevated dropout rates among young men and deepening despair that affects families and communities. He said those trends deserve a policy response and more sustained organizing from Democrats.

He also recalled his son encouraging him to get to know Kirk, a prompt that helped push Newsom to invite guests from outside his usual political circle onto his podcast as a way to better understand and engage with constituencies Republicans have appealed to.

Takeaway

Newsom's comments underline both the political potency of addressing young men's economic and social grievances and the challenge for Democrats to offer credible, concrete solutions rather than ceding the issue to conservative organizers.