WA elected officials react to fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk in Utah

(The Center Square) – Moments after news of Charlie Kirk’s shooting was disseminated and his fate was still unknown, Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh told The Center Square he was “praying for a miracle.”

That miracle never came, as Kirk, cofounder and executive director of conservative organization Turning Point USA, died of his wounds after taking a bullet to the neck at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. A suspect has since been taken into custody.

Walsh said he blames political rhetoric for fueling the violence.

“The partisan rhetoric of the extreme left is violent,” he said. “And it's one of the great misunderstandings of American political culture that the left is peaceful. The left is not peaceful; the left is violent. The rhetoric is violent. Their anger is dangerous. And the radical left fills its minions with hate and feelings of oppression and victimization that motivate violent actions. We see it in the attempts on the President's life. And we see it today.”

The Republican House member from Aberdeen said he met Kirk on a few occasions and thought a lot of him.

“He was an unconventional thinker,” Walsh said. “He saw opportunities and needs in the political discourse that other people weren't filling, and he filled them.”

Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, was emotional about the shooting when reached by phone early Wednesday afternoon.

“It kind of reminds me we’re in a hyper-politicized world, and there’s a lot of violence, and as someone who speaks out on things, this is something I think about,” he admitted. “You never know what can happen and where. Just because it’s a red state like Utah doesn’t mean someone can’t show up unhinged and do something.”

Couture, who has often been outspoken about many of the most contentiously debated issues in Olympia, told The Center Square he fully understands that being in a political space at a time of such volatility could put him at risk.

“I won’t back down,” he said. “People with strong opinions in the political space should not be subject to violence. This is terrorism. The saddest thing about this is that it won’t stop here. I’ll never be afraid to have my opinion out there.”

Couture suggested social media allows people to get themselves worked up to the point that “even good people go down a dark path.”

He added, “You might disagree with them or not like what they’ve done, but we’re human beings and we have families, and no one should be shot for expressing their First Amendment rights in this country.”

Republican Senate Leader John Braun of Centralia issued a statement that said, in part: “The killing today of young father, husband, and political leader Charlie Kirk is a reprehensible act of pure evil. In America, we cannot shoot or physically attack people we politically disagree with. Not Charlie Kirk. Not Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. Not Minnesota Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Not Paul Pelosi.

“Not Rep. Steve Scalise. Not Gov. Josh Shapiro. Not President Trump. We are Americans before we are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents."

The Center Square reached out to the office of Gov. Bob Ferguson for comment on the shooting and received the following reply: “Violence is never the answer. There is no place in our democracy for political violence, and I condemn the murder of Charlie Kirk in the strongest terms. My prayers are with his family.”