The Takeover of Kirk Country

Six weeks after the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in September, University of Mississippi junior Lesley Lachman was standing in a campus parking lot near her sorority, Pi Beta Phi, scanning the calendar on her phone. She had interviews coming up with PBS, a local radio station, and Fox & Friends, before which she needed to redo her nails. I asked her why, and she looked at me like I was insane. “This is red. I’m doing Funny Bunny,” she said. The red wouldn’t look right on TV. Other members of her team had been getting interviewed too, and she worried they were being banal. “I’m like, ‘This is a brand, guys. Stop saying sentences like ‘We’re a conservative organization on campus.’ Say, ‘We are a true America-loving college!’”