(Radio Iowa) – Charlie Kirk, the prominent conservative activist who was shot to death yesterday (Wednesday), helped an Iowa politician launch a national group called Run Gen Z. Joe Mitchell had just been sworn into office as a state legislator when he met Kirk at an event in Des Moines. “He asked me to stay after the event to chat with him and we sat down for over two hours and talked about how do we get more conservatives to run for local and state office,” Mitchell says. Kirk’s group “Turning Point U-S-A” gave Mitchell the seed money to pay staff and start Run Gen Z in 2020. Mitchell was in a group chat with Kirk this past Sunday — the day before Mitchell announced he was running for congress in Iowa’s second congressional district. On Tuesday, Michell was making plans to have Kirk come to Iowa to campaign with him.

“And then this happened,” Mitchell said. “…It was an incredibly emotional day yesterday.” Mitchell adds that Kirk was killed on the sixth anniversary of the day he first met Kirk — September 10th, 2019 — and Kirk’s death adds more urgency to his campaign. “We’re not going to be intimidated and we’re not going to back down and we’re not going to mumble our voices,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to speak louder and stronger and we’re going to stand up for the truth.”

Governor Kim Reynolds has ordered flags at all public facilities in Iowa to be lowered to half staff until sunset on Sunday in Charlie Kirk’s honor. Flag lowering had already been scheduled for today (Thursday) to mark the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.