Arizona Governor Vetoes Charlie Kirk License Plate Bill
Gov. Katie Hobbs said the proposal honoring the slain conservative activist would inject partisan politics into a government program.
Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs recently vetoed a bill to create a specialty license plate honoring the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, with proceeds from its sale benefiting the anti-LGBTQ organization Turning Point USA, which he co-founded.
Kirk was shot and killed last year while speaking on a Utah college campus as part of Turning Point’s “American Comeback Tour,” during which he traveled to universities holding debate-style events with politically liberal students.
“Charlie Kirk’s assassination is tragic and a horrifying act of violence,” Hobbs wrote in her veto letter. “In America, we resolve our political differences at the ballot box. No matter who it targets, political violence puts us all in harm’s way and damages our sacred democratic institutions.”
However, Hobbs noted that the proposed bill “falls short” of efforts to “bring people together” by “inserting politics into a function of government that should remain nonpartisan,” according to the Arizona Mirror.
Had it been enacted, the legislation would have created a license plate honoring Kirk, with $17 of the $25 fee paid by purchasers of the specialty plate funneled to the nonprofit branch of Turning Point USA.
Turning Point USA is best known for opposing what it views as liberal orthodoxy, advocating stricter immigration policies, encouraging students to compile “watchlists” of left-wing college professors they believe are attempting to indoctrinate students, and promoting socially conservative views on marriage and gender roles.
Kirk frequently criticized the LGBTQ movement, arguing that same-sex marriage undermined traditional gender roles and warning that LGBTQ activism threatened Christian values.
The proposed bill was sponsored by State Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), founder of the right-wing Arizona Freedom Caucus, who worked closely with Kirk and whose consulting and marketing companies have been paid millions of dollars by Turning Point USA, according to previous reporting by the Mirror.
Hoffman told the Mirror last month that neither he nor his company had received financial compensation related to the license plate legislation. He acknowledged that his companies had previously provided professional services for Turning Point organizations but denied that those business relationships influenced his decision to sponsor the measure.
“Like many legislators with private-sector backgrounds, I have had many professional clients over the course of my career,” he told the newspaper. “Legislative decisions are based on policy merits and constituent interests, not prior business relationships.”
Hoffman blasted the governor for her veto.
“Katie Hobbs’ grotesque partisanship knows no bounds,” he told the Mirror. “Even in the wake of a global civil rights leader — an Arizona resident and her own constituent — being assassinated in broad daylight for his defense of the First Amendment, Hobbs couldn’t find the human decency to put her far-Left extremism aside simply to allow those who wish to honor him to do so.”
Ironically, as the Mirror previously reported, Kirk himself had argued against well-funded private organizations receiving government money, saying it forced taxpayers to fund political causes with which they might personally disagree.
“To me, to use a government program to financially benefit one political organization sets just a troubling precedent, and it risks blurring the lines between state neutrality and political advocacy,” State Sen. Lauren Kuby (D-Tempe) argued last month when Hoffman’s bill was considered by a Senate committee.
Several other bills pushed by Arizona Republicans also seek to memorialize Kirk and celebrate his legacy, including one bill that would allow a statue of Kirk to be erected across from the Arizona Capitol. Another bill would rename the Loop 202 freeway after Kirk.
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