More than 1,500 students and other supporters honored Charlie Kirk at the University of Minnesota — the first college campus event Turning Point USA has held since Kirk was assassinated Sept. 10.

Before his death, Kirk was scheduled to speak at the U; conservative author Michael Knowles headlined the Monday event in his place.

“There was simply a light and levity to the man,” Knowles said at the sold-out free event, adding that Kirk’s brightness came from his character and from Kirk’s savior, Jesus.

Kirk, founder of the youth-oriented, pro-Trump Turning Point USA organization, was killed while speaking at a Utah college campus. He was buried Sunday and President Donald Trump spoke at his memorial.

An empty black chair sat on the Northrop auditorium stage next to Knowles to honor Kirk, who would have been in the third week of Turning Point’s “American Comeback Tour.” A white T-shirt that said “Freedom” and a “47″ ball cap, referencing Trump’s presidency, sat on the chair.

The event started with the “Star Spangled Banner,” a rendition of the Lee Greenwood hit “God Bless the U.S.A.” and then a prayer led by local pastor Dale Witherington.

Then Knowles, a conservative political commentator and author, took the stage, leading the audience in a prayer and acknowledging that instead of talking to Kirk on stage this evening, “now it will be a conversation about Charlie.”

The assassin took what Kirk’s future might have been, Knowles said, adding that he believed Kirk would have been president one day.

Many conservatives saw Kirk as a bastion of open debate in a politically polarized America. On college campuses, Kirk debated students on traditionally conservative ideals and beliefs.

Recent U graduate Rylan Krull, 24, said Kirk’s assassination attempted to stymie the open dialogue Kirk supported on American college campuses. But his death, Krull said, has only invigorated his supporters.

“People got very mobilized when he died, like I’ve never seen before,” Krull said. “Even when Trump almost got killed. I’ve never seen people go, ‘We need to get out there and say what we believe and make a difference.’”

With Kirk’s rise to fame, Keane Pfeifer, a student at the U, said he felt more open to discussing his beliefs with others and added that many conservatives, especially at generally liberal institutions such as the U, have felt repressed in their ideals.

“The beliefs that I had were very shunned,” Pfeifer said. “I felt like I was wrong, until I saw Charlie Kirk and more people had these ideals.”

Kirk has been remembered as the Republican “voice of a generation,” helping Trump win reelection and engaging young conservatives. He was also a skilled provocateur and was often slammed for statements his critics called anti-immigrant, racist, misogynistic and transphobic.

Outside Mayday Books on Cedar Avenue, nearly 100 people gathered to protest the Turning Point event, holding signs with messages like “Say No to Hate” and “No Place for Hate.” Outside Northrop auditorium, Derek Torstenson chanted “Hey hey, ho ho, Turning Point has got to go” while people waited in line for the event.

U doctoral student Kelly Rogers, who noted many of her classmates are transgender, queer or people of color, felt that the university hosting the event seemed to legitimize the group’s rhetoric targeting those groups.

One of her classes was taught online Monday because of safety concerns, she said.

“There is a passive acceptance of the fact that certain groups have to hide out today, and that just feels very dystopian,” she said.

Though the Turning Point event was held at the U, the school didn’t sponsor the activities. Kirk also spoke at the university in 2017 in what was a peaceful event without protests.

Knowles said onstage Monday that while some people want to return to the American “marketplace of ideas,” he believes conservatives must now assert order, and that certain beliefs and ideas should cause people to lose social standing and sometimes their jobs.

“We had a marketplace of ideas,” he said. “The left shot it up.”

Then Knowles opened the floor to questions. The questions ranged from whether Knowles, who is of Italian descent, liked pizza or calzones, to whether it’s worth it for conservatives to invest politically in Minnesota and how to square up some of the New Testament’s more liberal teachings with conservatism.

At one point, when explaining an element of Islam, Knowles said of Christianity, “Our religion is one that makes sense.”

When asked what is next for the conservative movement, he said that, long-term, various conservative factions will fight for power. But Vice President JD Vance seems to be the one force that can unify conservatives, he said.

After a question about immigration, Knowles said that both illegal and legal immigration must be addressed and immigration to the U.S. overall must be drastically reduced.

He said Somali American immigrants don’t assimilate and bring crime with them. A woman from the audience shouted that they should be sent home.

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(Zoë Jackson, Deena Winter, Tyler Church, Elliot Hughes and Sofia Barnett of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.)

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