Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, is continuing to honor her late husband’s legacy.
The businesswoman, 36, received the inaugural Charlie Kirk Legacy Award at Fox Nation’s Patriot Awards on Thursday, November 6, following the assassination of her husband — and told the crowd of supporters that she will not stay silent.
“I want to encourage you to know and understand something that Charlie knew and understood so deeply,” she said in her speech. “He knew that evil wins when good people stay silent, and so for the rest of my life, I will make sure that I don’t stay silent.”
“I’ll keep speaking the truth no matter the cost,” she continued. “And I pray that all of you do too — for Charlie. Thank you. God bless you.”
Following Kirk’s death at age 31, Fox announced that it would give out the Charlie Kirk Legacy Award at the seventh annual Patriot Awards. Each subsequent year, according to Fox, it will be presented “to a recipient who embodies Charlie’s mission and his spirit of free speech, faith, and family.”
In her speech, Erika made clear that her husband was not afraid to say what he believed to be true.
“Charlie would always tell myself and others that America is worth fighting for. It is and always will be,” she told the crowd. “I’ll never forget the time where somebody told him, ‘I appreciate what you’re saying, I just don’t really like how you’re saying it. I don’t like your delivery, and I think you could reach more people if you changed that.’”
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In response, Kirk said, “You’re missing the point. It’s not how I’m saying it that’s upsetting people. It’s the fact that I’m saying the truth that’s upsetting people.”
Kirk’s sudden death gained national attention after he was killed while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, as part of his American Comeback Tour. The alleged shooter, Tyler James Robinson, is facing multiple charges, including one count of aggravated murder. During a hearing on September 29, Robinson did not enter a plea, according to CBS News.
Erika — who shares two young children with her late husband — sat down for her first televised interview on Jesse Watters Primetime, and her candid conversation aired earlier this week.
During the interview, she revealed what it was like seeing the right-wing political activist in the hospital before he was pronounced dead, recalling that he had a smirk on his face.
“That smirk to me is that look of ‘you thought you could stop what I’ve built. You thought that you could end this vision, this movement, this revival, you thought you could do that by murdering me. You got my body, you didn’t get my soul,’” she said.