What College Students Really Think of Charlie Kirk

[applegrove]

What College Students Really Think of Charlie Kirk

September 16, 2025 at 10:52 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 235 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2025/09/16/what-college-students-really-think-of-charlie-kirk/

A new Generation Lab poll found that Charlie Kirk was almost universally known among college kids: 94% of students had heard of him, a remarkable level of name I.D. for any political figure.

However, most college students were not fans. A combined 70% of students said they either “strongly disagree” or “somewhat disagree” with Kirk’s views. Only 30% said they agreed.

[leftstreet]

1. So...he was speaking at places he wasn't liked

okay

[Dulcinea]

2. I asked my daughter about him.

She just graduated in May. She told me there was a TPUSA chapter, or whatever the correct term is, on her campus, but most people thought they were just annoying. She went to college in Alabama, too.

[senseandsensibility]

3. Extremely important context

But I fear that these statistics, along with Kirk's own words, will remain verboten in the corporate media.

[CoopersDad]

4. "Only 30% said they agreed" is not an encouraging data point...

...but neither is it surprising.

[Prairie Gates]

5. Nationwide, in an environment where college is becoming trade school for the business class?

Only 30% is pretty paltry, and probably lower than what the John Birch Society was registering at UC Berkeley in 1965.

[Silent Type]

6. Exactly. There was a time most college students wouldn't even admit to knowing someone like Kirk.

[Johnny2X2X]

7. He set it up to look like something it wasn't

He wasn't setting up actual debates on college campuses, he was setting up a booth and then ambushing unsuspecting college students who just happened to be walking by so he could then publish YouTube shorts of him "owning libs." That was his whole deal, ambushing people with cheap parlor tricks and making money off from it.

[Quazie]

13. doesn't make sense

So he was forcing these students to walk up to the microphone and talk to him? Is that an ambush in your eyes? 94% of those polled knew who he was... how many of them got ambushed? When he drew dozens or hundreds in his crowds, how many were ambushed?

Have big issues with his words, but don't pretend every person on the other side wasn't talking to him willingly. That only diminishes the courage of young people to stand up to his ideas.

[SWBTATTReg]

8. I never heard of him...that's my 2 cents and from what I just found out about him, reaffirms my

desire to not know such a person. Part of which is him, his beliefs, and the rest (mostly) is that I don't need to have yet another person tell me what to believe, what to do, another (horrors!) influencer. I've have had by far, too many idiots (especially w/ tRUMP and crowd) tell us what to do, to think, to anything). It's getting really old.

[GusBob]

9. I wonder about Non college people of the same age?

I'd bet he was popular with them, and they really helped Trump in 2024?

[Johonny]

10. His target audience was non-college young males

He was popular with some college educated males, but his whole gig was making college look pointless and puffing up rage among non-college educated white young males. A demographic that has become a stronghold of conservatives.

[RockRaven]

11. What percent think it is creepy that a 30+ year old man tries to spend so much time

with 18-20 year olds?

[ananda]

12. This is after the fact.

I really don't trust anything they say.