All In To Win: Who Was Charlie Kirk? | Joe Mitchell

Bob: Welcome back to All In to Win. I’m Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader, and thank you for tuning in and being our guest wherever you’re at. We always say if you’re walking the dog or if you’re having a cup of coffee or you’re sitting with a neighbor, whatever it is, we’re just glad you’re tuning in. I got to tell you, I have really enjoyed these conversations and every guest is a special guest to me.

But you’re really going to like today’s guest. He’s a candidate for Congress here in the state of Iowa. And we might talk a little bit about that, but not a lot about that. But he’s a good friend.

His name is Joe Mitchell. And Joe, first of all, thank you for being here. And September 10th. So last week Thursday was the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

And September 10 for me is Darla and I were in Athens, Greece. As a matter of fact, we just landed in Athens, Greece, spent the first night in Athens, and we had a delegation with The Family Leader, and we’re going to do a footsteps of Paul journey. And I know you’ve traveled some internationally, but traveling internationally, you wake up, you’re kind of like, where am I at? What time is it?

And typically when I wake up, I never look at my phone because if I look at my phone, I’m like, OK, now I got to read that text or I got to read that something, and I just want to go back to sleep, right? But I didn’t know where the clock was in the hotel room, but I knew where my phone was. So I picked up my phone and I looked at my phone, and my phone literally had just blown up. And now this is the middle of the night in Athens, Greece. And it’s probably like 8:00, 9:00 at night here in Iowa, and it’s all about Charlie Kirk.

And the first text I got was, have you heard the news about Charlie Kirk? And I thought, Oh my gosh. And right away my head went to, I hope it’s not some moral failing, you know, ’cause it just seems like it’s another day that ends in we’re an outstanding leader then all of a sudden something comes out like, gosh, I wish that wouldn’t happen. And—but then I started reading more and more. I thought, Oh my gosh.

And then to find out that no, he, he passed away. He died. He was assassinated. And I remember making calls back to Steve Dace in Iowa, talked to some other people back in Iowa, and people were just devastated beyond belief.

Charlie was a friend of mine. I met him back in 2016 when he worked on the Cruz campaign, volunteered for the Cruz campaign. A ministry partner of ours, Foster Friess, was like, Bob, you need to meet this guy, Charlie Kirk.

Charlie and I then went on, we developed a really great relationship, spoke at different events together, went out for dinner in Wisconsin together, he, my wife and, and Charlie and I, and so we were just devastated.

Tell me about Charlie Kirk, the impact that he had on your life, and tell me about September 10th a year ago for you.

Joe: So September 10th, a year ago, I had announced 4th Congressional seat 2 days prior to that. So September 8th. And the last person to see my press release was Charlie Kirk. And so I’d saw Charlie about a month before that in Aspen, Colorado. He had an investor’s retreat there. And I’d went there and I spoke to him, you know, briefly, and him and Tyler Bowyer about possibly a congressional seat coming up in Iowa in the district that I live in. And I expressed interest in that seat.

And Charlie said, you got to run. We got to have a new generation of leaders in Washington. And as things transpired and as you know, Ashley Hinson, you know, actually announced for the Senate seat. I put together a press release, sent it to Tyler and Charlie September 8th.

I was hoping to actually get on his show to announce my candidacy, but he was coming back from South Korea on a trip, you know, over that weekend. And—but I was actively talking to the Turning Point Action team about him coming out to do an endorsement event for me. He had endorsed me a few years prior in my state legislative races.

And so I was driving to Dubuque that day for a local candidates’ fundraiser. And I had a friend of mine that was actually a Harvard fellow with me the year prior. I was a resident fellow at Harvard at the Kennedy School. And my friend Brittany Shepherd, and she was a journalist. She worked for ABC, and so she called me out of the blue and I answered and she said, have you heard about Charlie?

And I said no. I said, what’s going on? And she said well there’s reports he’s been shot at the campus stop he was doing in Utah. And I said, you know, obviously was shocked and, you know, was like, OK, can you give me some more information once you hear about it and once more information comes to the news desk.

And so next thing you know, I, I see on Twitter what, what I wish I wouldn’t have saw, which was the shot and the very graphic shot. Can’t get out of my head. And I had to pull over. I mean, I was, I was devastated and I was saddened and I was, you know, I, I, I can’t even express the feeling.

I’ve never had the feeling before of seeing that. Obviously we’ve had loved ones that have passed away and stuff, but this, this is different.

And, you know, so I, I, I see that video, my friend Brittany calls you back probably 30 minutes later and says she has heard that, you know, he’s passed away and that the president was preparing a statement and those sort of things.

And I remember calling my, my family. I was, I was sad, but I was, I was also outraged. I was outraged that this had happened. And, you know, I was just outraged because we’ve had so much violence in our country the last few years, specifically towards conservatives, notably the president back in 2024, and just with Steve Scalise about a month ago. He was obviously shot in the baseball field in 2018. And we just have example after example of people on our side that have stood up and done the right thing being targeted and—and actually they were successful this time with Charlie.

And so I get to this event and it was, it was really tough. And I was sitting there and I went back in my text messages and I said I know I’d met Charlie in September of 2019. And I go back to our first message he ever sent me, just said Charlie Kirk. And it was from September 10th of 2019.

And I sort of just lost it at that point. I did, I had to leave. I left the event. I drove back to where I was staying that night and I just, it was, I don’t know, it’s kind of like supernatural that six years ago to that date, I met him here in Iowa at a Faith and Freedom conference that Tamara Scott was putting on at the Holiday Inn.

And, you know, when I met Charlie, I was a state legislator at the time. I was 22. I just been elected. It was, you know, shortly after my first session in the legislature and I remember seeing this flyer online that he was going to be at the Holiday Inn.

And I messaged Tamara about it and she told me to come out to the event. And to me, he was, he was a big deal, right? A lot of, you know, people my age knew who he was. And, you know, he got, you know, much larger, I think, like post-2020.

But young, young people knew who he was. You know, in 2019, he was a big deal. And I went to the event to shake his hand and get a photo with him. And I go there and I meet him and he grabs my phone and says, hey, put my number in and I want to, you know, connect and talk more after this.

And so he actually shouts me out in a speech. And I thought that was pretty cool, right? And he texts me afterwards and says, hey, can you stick around and let’s, let’s meet for coffee and talk about your race, how you got elected as a representative at such a young age.

And so we sat there for two hours in the Holiday Inn Cafe by the airport and talked about my race, but how to get more young conservatives to run for office. So school board, state legislative races, City Council races.

And so he invites me into his Student Action Summit later that December. And I went to it and spoke. And my message to those kids was, listen, if I can do it, you can do it, you know, and that was my message to them. And then I went to him and Tyler afterwards and I said we really need to start something and branch it off at Turning Point USA to get some of these young people that are involved in your organization to run for office.

And they both said, listen, we got a lot of stuff going on, Joe, if you want to start, we’ll help you start it. And so over that next year, then, I put this plan together of like, how do we start an organization to get these young people to get off the sidelines and run for office and really kind of build this bench of, of next generation of leaders.

And so then about a year later came back, pitched Charlie on the idea and he gave me $30,000 of seed money, which–I didn’t have two nickels to rub together. And he gave me a $30,000 to start this organization called Run GenZ.

And so, you know, I start the organization, we grew it over 4 years. We’ve gotten hundreds of young people elected all around the country and 40 different states to, again, City Council, school board, county Board of Supervisors, state legislative seats all around the country.

And it wouldn’t have been possible without Charlie and the teamwork and the partnership of the people at Turning Point USA. And so it was really just phenomenal how, how that grew and how our partnership grew.

And, you know, really the next kind of milestone of, you know, Charlie kind of impacting my life was he called me last year in January of 2025. And he was the senior-level advisor for the president to the transition team.

And I don’t think people really understand how, how much the president trusted Charlie, and he put him in this position to vet senior-level staff and really cabinet members to make sure that, you know, only people that were truly America First were going to serve in his cabinet, and he didn’t have what happened in the first administration where he had a lot of snakes in there that were going to stab him in the back.

And so Charlie called me and said–this was January 2nd of 2025–and said, hey, can you come down to Florida and can you come help on the transition team in a volunteer capacity for the next week or so?

And I said absolutely. So I go down and I was actually going to be in Florida anyways at a family friend’s house in Southwest Florida, in Punta Gorda.

And so I get down there and I take their Buick over to Palm Beach and drive that over.

And then I’m asked to go to Mar-a-Lago. And so Charlie and Sergio Gore, who is the director of the Presidential Personnel Office, they asked me to come to Mar-a-Lago. And it’s a Monday night. And so Mar-a-Lago is closed on Mondays, but I go over, of course, with the Buick, which I don’t think there’s ever been a lot of Buicks at Mar-a-Lago. You know, I think that was the first.

But I go, I go in with it and I park and, you know, go through security and stuff and come into the living room. And Newt Gingrich is sitting there on the couch. He’s the only person in there, right? He’s waiting for the president. He’s waiting to see the president. It was shortly before his wife was picked as ambassador of Switzerland.

And I sit there and visit with him on the couch for about 45 minutes. It was surreal. It’s like a movie that I walked into.

And then I go visit with Sergio and he said, show up for the next week and help vet people, you know, for the personnel team. And so I’m there for a week.

And at the end of the week, him and Charlie pull me in the office and they say, do you want to work on the, you know, presidential personnel team in the White House?

And I say not, not really. And they look at me and they’re like, you’re 27. What do you mean not really? Of course you want to do this, right? And I say, listen, I’m a developer back home. I own my own business, I run the Iowa Real Estate Developers Association. I really want to help the president with housing. That’s what I’m really passionate about.

And so they said, OK, do you want to be the chief of staff to the Federal Housing Finance Agency? And I said absolutely, that’s a huge deal.

You know, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank System. And so I was picked as the chief of staff. Bill Pulte was then picked as the director of the agency shortly after that.

And so then for the first six months of the admin, I worked in, you know, DC and helped the president with, you know, those initiatives. And you know, that was all because of Charlie though, right?

And you know, then a few months after that is when I saw him in Aspen and then, you know, announced the campaign, and then September 10th happened. But I tell people, you know, I never tried to exaggerate our relationship at all. We weren’t, we weren’t dinner buddies. We weren’t best friends by any means. He was a mentor of mine. I would consider him a huge influence.

But the time I would spend with him, big things would happen. And my story is not unique. There’s thousands of other people that have been touched by Charlie in that way where he was the type of guy, if you were having a conversation with him and there was somebody he wanted to connect you with, he would just call them right there. He would text them right then.

He, he was, he was never a, you know, wait till later guy to get something done. He had, he had the greatest sense of urgency that I’ve ever seen out of any human being, I think. And he wanted to get things done. And he was so driven to do that.

And, you know, when you look at, you know, my career path–Run GenZ, working for the admin and really now running for Congress–none of that would have been possible or would have been much harder to achieve if it wasn’t for Charlie’s influence in my life.

And you know, I’ve spent, you know, only, you know, a number of hours really with him. You know what I mean?

Bob: That does show you the impact of what Charlie had. I mean, as you’re going through that, first of all, where he said, you know, here’s 30 grand, start Run GenZ, right? And you’re like, I’m broke and you’re going to give me 30 grand?

Joe: Right, correct.

Bob: But it reminds me of a story he told me, that he was speaking at CPAC and what he had planned for Turning Point USA and he didn’t have two nickels to rub together. And he got into the elevator with Foster Friess.

And Foster said, you know, basically, really, you know, loved your, your speech. I think it’s great. Get young people involved, young people engaged. And Foster Friess, I think right there in the elevator gave him a $10,000 check. And then a lot more thousands and I’m sure 7 digits later on of helping out Charlie make that difference.

You go back to September 10th, 2019, when you first get your first text from Charlie, I believe you said.

Joe: Yeah, met him for the first time same day, texted him, got together with me right afterwards.

Bob: So September 10, 2025. Before that, Charlie and I were going back and forth and it was basically to get Charlie to keynote our leadership summit this year, right? The one that you were at.

Yeah. And we had lined up his team would visit with our team here at The Family Leader on September 10th, 2025 to talk about making this happen. Our team said, let’s do it at this time. His team came back and said we can’t because we’re still going to be in Utah with Charlie at this campus event.

And they say, all right, we’ll back it up. So it’s going to be like one or two o’clock Iowa time. Then obviously the call never happens because of Charlie, right?

And then that morning waking up in Athens and we got the delegation onto the bus and obviously everybody’s hearing the news back from the States now that Charlie got shot.

Believe it or not, some of our delegates–you said all the young people knew him back, you know, in 2022? There’s some people of, of our delegation who would have never heard of him. I’m like, how do you, how could you not have heard of Charlie Kirk and you’re part of our delegation?

So I tell them about Charlie and who he was and where he was at and what he was doing when he got shot.

Our first stop was Mars Hill, where the Apostle Paul has taken on the academia elite of the day about the unknown gods. You guys are worshipping gods. You don’t even know what what you’re standing for. And Paul was introducing them to the real God.

And that’s really what Charlie was doing. You know, I’m willing to listen to your viewpoint. I’m willing to listen to what you have to say. But let me then give you a solid foundation on which to at least have the debate.

And to think that’s why he got shot, because you’re right. You mentioned Steve Scalise in the baseball game, President Trump, how many times? The one we remember most is the one in Pennsylvania. But then you take a look at Charlie in Utah, and if you can’t shut him up, or if you can’t debate, if you can’t win the argument, then we need to kill you.

Joe: Yeah. And, and that’s where, you know, the aftermath and you really did see this revival happen immediately afterwards. I think we have some work to do and I think there’s been some evil forces working against that over the last 6 to 8 months, I would say.

But right afterwards, you know, I, I went to his funeral down in Arizona and, you know, I’ve told people I have no idea what heaven’s going to be like. But that was the closest thing to heaven that I will know will ever feel or experience, I think, on this side, on earth, because it was absolutely incredible, 100,000 people in this stadium and, you know, it was 12 hours I was there for. Right? Because you had to get in early and a ton of speakers and they had bands playing and stuff. I’m somebody I get kind of hangry. I got to eat. I didn’t think about food all day. I didn’t think about anything else. And it was the most incredible worship and just celebration of life that happened on that day in Arizona last year.

And, and you again, you saw this kind of revival happen and people were, you know, they were, they were driven to do something, right. They were going to church. I think people were more politically engaged. And they said, how could this happen in this country, you know, in the year of 2025? And, you know, I still speak about this because it was just a year ago. It wasn’t 10 years ago. It was a year ago that this happened.

And I think we need to to be reminded of that because we have to have people elected to office that are willing to speak the truth and are also willing to speak against the violence that is happening to primarily conservatives out there.

And I think it’s important to point that out is, you know, the left wants to say it’s this both-sides issue. It’s not a both-sides issue. It’s an issue against people that are speaking truth and that are being threatened and it’s on the left they allowed to happen.

And you know, I saw this, I just posted a really nice tribute last week about my friendship, you know, with Charlie and what really what we just talked about, and you put it in words and post it on social media–and the vile comments, the vitriol that I get from people–and they’re not from out of state, by the way. They’re, they’re people that I know in the district, that live here in Iowa and, you know, our friend was assassinated and they get, they can’t just, like, let that post be. Like you want to attack me and other stuff, you know, you want to comment on the Iowa Hawkeyes tailgate I went to this weekend and say something or any policy position I have, but that shows me how deranged these people are. And it just, it’s—we’re in a very sad state in this country.

Bob: You know, it’s a real tribute to Charlie, though, because we talk all the time, we’re told about this, you know, Paul told us this–we’re in spiritual war, Ephesians 6, you know, so put on the full armor of God. This is spiritual warfare. It’s good versus evil.

And because Charlie was giving voice and respectful voice to good, to common sense, to God’s order, to God’s created order, that sparks that kind of vitriol.

Joe: Well, and the other thing I point out to people is that the people that Charlie loved the most were the most broken people, were the people that he was witnessing to on these college campuses. And that’s what gets me is that that’s exactly what Tyler Robinson was, by the way, who assassinated him.

He was one of these troubled individuals that was radicalized that Charlie was trying to evangelize to and tell the truth to. And that’s who he was taken out by. And that’s just like, that’s what gets me.

That’s what I want people to know about him is the exact people that hate him, he loved and he wanted them to know the gospel of Jesus.

Bob: If you look at two sides of that coin, one is the vitriol that that can have. So you say I make this post about my friend Charlie being assassinated and I can’t believe some of the comments are coming online. And these are people right here in my home district. This isn’t California or Massachusetts. This is Iowa.

But also what you got to experience–the good, the the largest tent revival this world’s ever seen right in Phoenix, Arizona. And then you extrapolate it about–Darla and I listened to it on radio, XM radio, driving back from Chicago after we flew in from Istanbul, driving back from Chicago to Des Moines. We listened in and we were mesmerized by that memorial service.

But the praise, the worship, the sermons that were given by not clergy, but by Don Jr., by Marco Rubio, people that are like, are you…? And then Erika Kirk about forgiveness.

And just this past Sunday, we had 19 baptisms in our church, 34 became members. But one of the guys said, after Charlie Kirk was assassinated–he goes, I was a big fan of Charlie Kirk, and after he was assassinated, I told my wife, we need to get back into the church–and to see the impact that his life had, but frankly also to see the impact his death had.

I was at Turning Point probably 3, 4, 5, 6 months after Charlie’s assassination and had a chance to visit with some of their, their leadership there.

And I said to them, I said, you know, the Charlie Kirk I know, had he known that his death was going to spark this kind of a revival, that his messages would be going viral right, all over the place, I said, I think Charlie would say, I’ll take that bullet right now. Now I wish he didn’t have to. I wish he was still over here with us, but he inspired a lot.

What do you think was about Charlie that made him so unique, so special, such an inspiration to the younger generation, yes, but there’s also plenty of my generation–I consider myself older generation now–who are very inspired by Charlie as well.

Joe: He was so gifted and so unique in the sense–and, you know, I hear people all the time talk about who’s the next Charlie Kirk? I don’t think there is another Charlie Kirk.

Bob: Right. It’s like, who’s the next Donald Trump? There’s not gonna be another Donald Trump.

Joe: But all of us together collectively can help pick up those pieces. But you’re talking about a guy that, I mean, he had a photographic memory, no doubt. I mean, the way he could quote Scripture, the way he could quote historical documents, and the Constitution, I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it. And he didn’t have notes. And you know, I just watched the other night those debates he was doing at Cambridge, which is unbelievable.

And, and he’s—if you’ve listened to his podcast, he talked about going over there, taking a red-eye flight and like walking into the Coliseum. And, you know, they had not necessarily prepared for that type of intense debate, but he held his own more than anybody else.

And, but he did that all the time walking on these college campuses. And, you know, he was so well read. You know, I don’t–and I don’t even know how he was that well read because I don’t know where the time of the day was to be that well read, because as you know, whether it was myself, yourself or, or the president, you know, you, you text him, he gets back to you right away, you know, and—and it wasn’t somebody else. It was him that was responding.

And so I just don’t know how he had the time of the day to have all that knowledge and wisdom. And—but he was in his Word and he was reading stuff constantly. And, you know, I just, we’re not going to have anybody else like him.

And they knew that too, though. The enemy knows that. And that’s why they had to take him out.

And, you know, so this is where we all have an added burden and responsibility, you know, to, to make sure that we’re the best we can be and that we can have conversations and discussions with people and be educated on, you know, our talking points and our viewpoints at work.

You know, I, I try to challenge myself every day to do that, you know, because I know it can be better.

And he just, he was always about, you know, achieving excellence and being better and being a productive person and, you know, loving Jesus.

And so, you know, it’s just, I mean, I, it, I don’t know if we’ll ever see– hopefully we don’t see something like that ever happen again.

Bob: It’s interesting that you bring that up. I remember when we were speaking in Madison, Wisconsin–it wasn’t Madison, but it was Wisconsin. I can’t think of the name of the town right now, but we were speaking in Wisconsin at an event.

It was a great event and there’s a lot of youth there and I spoke first and then I got done. Then I listened to Charlie, and there’s a part of me, I mean, I really like Charlie, but I was always a little bit concerned about Charlie, too, because you got a young person right on this meteoric rise, and they have all the people that had to be trying to take him down.

But I remember he was giving that, that message to those young people. He talked about being in the Word of God. He talked about reading classical literature, talked about reading how Western civilization came to be. But he he’s basically said, get off the screens and start reading what made this country the way the country is.

And not just Western civilization, but what Christianity offers you, but also offers your family and the world around you. And you’re right that the time that he had–cause I still remember when Ann Selzer’s poll came out in the 2024 election, showed Kamala Harris going to win Iowa by 11, Trump way down. I was driving. I still remember, I was driving and I got a call. It’s Charlie Kirk. And so I take it and Charlie goes, Bob, tell me about this poll. I said there—

Joe: He texted me about the poll too.

Bob: I said there is no way, Charlie, that this is correct. There is nothing on the ground that I see that would substantiate this poll. He goes, that’s all I need to hear. Let’s go win this thing.

But what he was doing right there is that, I want to find out, is that real or is that fake? As soon as he saw, you know, that’s fake news. I’m sure he reported back to the president, that type of thing.

But he had this uncanny ability to be uniquely grounded in the truth, but very accessible all the time. Even President Trump. When I was at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump told me about the times that Charlie called him, you know, which was frequent.

So if Charlie were with us today, you’re running for Congress, I’m leading this thing called The Family Leader–I pretend to be leading. Got a great team. They, they do everything. I just, I got to go along for the ride.

But you run for Congress. I’m doing this thing called The Family Leader. Others are out there doing their thing. What would Charlie’s message be to all of us? What, what’s—what do you think his final message would be to all of us for such a time as this?

Joe: Keep the faith. And that’s what he would say and he said it a lot when he was around here. You know, he fought so hard in 2024 to make sure the president got reelected. And I think—

Bob: And he cried when he did get elected, right?

Joe: And I—and I think he truly believed we were at an existential time and threat if the president wasn’t elected. You know, I truly think he believes that, did believe that. And I think he would say the same thing for this midterm, and I think, you know, it’s—it’s one of these things where he understood this is a long-term plan that we have to execute. You know, it’s not just about winning one election. It’s about winning a number of elections and making sure that Overton window comes back to really the middle, to normalcy.

And you have a Democrat Party that is so out of control right now. And this, these DSA candidates that are running that want to abolish prisons, they want to abolish ICE, they want to abolish the Senate and the Supreme Court as institutions. And so they’re—they’re so contrary to anything that we believe as Americans and anything that we believe from a Western civilization standpoint.

And so that’s where I think he would say, keep the faith, keep working hard, stay focused, don’t get your eye off the ball. I think there’s been a lot of people post his death, by the way, I love that meme where it’s, you know, like, you know, Charlie and, and the dam and keeping all the water. And it’s like, you know, all the people that have just completely went off the reservation on the conservative side of the aisle.

And Charlie Kirk was kind of the dam keeping it back of like, we got to stay focused on the stuff. And I think that’s a perfect illustration that no one really understood when he was here, what he was doing.

He was keeping everyone in line saying like, we got to focus on winning. We have to focus on what the the real, real objection is. And, you know, I think he would say the same thing if he was sitting here with us today.

Bob: Totally agree. And I think your comment, too, about keeping the faith. Charlie knew light will overcome darkness, good will triumph over evil. So be the light, do the good. Whether that’s run for Congress, being at The Family Leader, doing whatever it is that you’re doing, do that in your household, do that in your church, do it in your community. Hopefully the ripple effects to your state, into this country–that’s the revival he was looking for.

Joe, it’s such a pleasure to visit with you. Tell these people if they want to learn more about Joe Mitchell, how would they learn more about Joe Mitchell?

Joe: So you can go to joemitchell.com. It’s pretty simple. It’s just my name, JoeMitchell.com, to learn more about myself and our campaign and our efforts to help save this country.

And Bob, thanks for having us on. We love to partner with The Family Leader and you guys do a phenomenal job, and looking forward to working with you guys in DC as well.

Bob: Thanks so much. We are All In to Win. I know Joe’s All In to Win. Do not let your testimony be disqualified for the prize. That might be another thing Charlie would say. Don’t let your testimony be disqualified for the prize. Operate with a level of integrity.

We’re thrilled to have a guy like Joe Mitchell visit us in our headquarters as well as on this podcast, and we’re thrilled that he’s also running for Congress. Check him out, JoeMitchell.com.

Until next time, leave a five-star review. Share it with a friend. Make sure you watch, tune in, and we’ll see you next time on All In to Win.