Members of OU Turning Point USA will attend the Norman City Council meeting on Tuesday to speak against Ward 4 Councilmember Helen Grant, who made remarks about conservative activist Charlie Kirk following his assassination.
The organization announced its plans to attend the meeting in a Sunday Instagram post that featured a screenshot of Grant's remarks and a picture of Grant with the word “Evil.”
“We expect a level of humanity from our representatives,” the post read. “Helen Grant’s comments regarding Charlie’s death were far from humane; (they) must be held accountable.”
Turning Point USA's original post used the pronoun "she" when referring to Grant. OU Daily editors replaced the word with Grant's stated pronoun "they."
Grant did not immediately respond to OU Daily’s request for comment.
Kirk was fatally shot Sept. 10 during an appearance at Utah Valley University during his “The American Comeback Tour.” Announced in September to commemorate Kirk, “The Turning Point Tour” will make a stop at OU’s campus Thursday.
The Norman City Council meeting will be held on what would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday.
In reply to a Facebook post on Sept. 10, Grant wrote Kirk’s death was ironic, calling him a narcissist and a “grotesque cheerleader.”
“He was definitely a cog in the gears of a much larger death machine, …” Grant wrote. “It is probably destabilizing to MAGA and politically adjacent groups to think someone could actually pop one of their high earning/highly visible talking heads. But gun violence has been ridiculously out of hand, … so it was bound to happen.”
Kalib Magana, president of OU Turning Point USA, told the Daily Monday morning that he believed Grant’s comments were insensitive and wanted to take action in Kirk’s honor.
The Instagram post also shared an RSVP GroupMe link for people interested in attending the meeting. Magana said that roughly 50 people have signed up to attend the meeting. As of 9:30 a.m., there are 12 people signed up for public comment, a city spokesperson wrote in a Monday email to OU Daily.
“(Grant) represents a district that not only represents conservatives but also Turning Point USA students who have been deeply impacted by the death of Charlie Kirk, …” Magana said. “Charlie Kirk would have wanted us to make our voices heard. He would’ve wanted us to stand up for ourselves, so that’s what we’re going to do.”
Norman’s Ward 4 covers a central portion of the city, including areas of OU’s campus.
City of Norman is divided into eight geographical areas called Wards. The voters in each ward elect a council member to represent them, and all city voters elect the mayor. The eight council members and the mayor form the nine-member Norman City Council.
In June, then-Ward 3 Councilmember Bree Montoya had an exchange with an individual in the comments of a KFOR-TV Facebook post about the “No Kings” protests, where she encouraged the user to perform acts of suicide. The comments are now deleted.
On Sept. 21, after conservative social media account Libs of TikTok resurfaced the comments on the social platform X, Montoya issued an apology for the comments and said the exchange got out of hand. Montoya resigned from the council member seat at the next meeting.
Council members are not considered traditional employees of the city and are protected by the First Amendment, so city staff cannot take disciplinary action against council members for exercising that right, according to a Sept. 18 press release from the city of Norman.
“The City of Norman as a municipal corporation does not support actions or behaviors that may encourage harm,” the release read. “Carrying out municipal functions that provide or support public service remains the focus of the corporation.”
The city council meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Public comments are limited to four minutes or less and should be directed to the council as a whole. Due to Open Meeting Act regulations, the council is not able to participate in discussion.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure. Parker Newman and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
