Youngkin Prays And Calls Students To Christ At Virginia Tech
The campus was buzzing with students when I found a long line outside a Turning Point event, the second since Charlie Kirk was killed two weeks earlier. The mood was tense, security was noticeably stepped up, and people were talking about what had happened. But one quiet moment in Burress Hall stood out more than the noise and the headlines.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, invited by Kirk, took the stage and steered his remarks away from pure politics toward faith and testimony. He said he had been rearranging his schedule to accept the invitation when he learned of Kirk’s death, and that moment set the tone for the night. What followed felt less like a campaign stop and more like a plainspoken sermon to a room of students.
Youngkin admitted he had been “not faithful” to God when he was in college and then laid out what he called “the most important decision” they will make in their lives is “accepting Christ as your Savior.” He said the next big life choice is deciding who to marry and used his own marriage as an example. That personal story sharpened his message and made it simple and direct.
An Uncomfortable Ask
He told the crowd about his wife Suzanne and how her faith shaped their relationship. When he proposed, she said, “Yes, but,” and then told him, “Jesus is really the center of my life and, therefore, He has to be in the center of our marriage. Promise me you’ll do that.” That challenge, he said, helped bring him into a committed Christian life.
Youngkin described arriving at a class for new believers and said he “truly accepted Christ,” and that he felt the “Spirit descending on me and I could do nothing other than weep.” He spoke fast and plainly about change and conviction, offering his testimony as an invitation more than a lecture. For many students, that kind of witness is rarer than political talking points.
He thanked the audience for stepping beyond their “comfort zones” to listen, then warned his next move might make some uneasy. “One of the things I firmly believe in is that prayer is essential, absolutely essential to everything we do,” he said, before admitting his next request might make some people “a little uncomfortable.” The ask was simple: reach out and hold hands with the people beside you.
There was a hush, some nervous laughter, and then hands found hands across rows of strangers. Youngkin explained it as a family tradition, how his family holds hands when they pray together, and that explanation made the moment feel familiar instead of staged. Holding hands turned the room into a literal, if brief, community.
Then Youngkin prayed aloud, and the words he used gave the moment its weight. “Father God, thank You,” he started. “Thank You for every single person in this room. … Father, we know You gathered us here tonight for a reason. And You promise us when two or three are gathered in Your name, You will be among us, so we invite You. Father, we thank You for Charlie Kirk, we thank You for his life, we thank You for the way he lived it. We thank You for the way You inspired him and called him. We thank You for his courage to say, ‘Yes, send me.’”
He continued, “Father, we thank You that Your promise is real. That Charlie is with You in Your Kingdom. And yes, when he arrived there was a celebration and You said, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ Father, we pray for Erika and their family, we pray for her first as a mother, we pray for her as Charlie’s wife, we pray for You to give her strength to fulfill those essential callings on her. But we also pray, Father, for her new role as leader of Turning Point, that You will provide her the strength, the capabilities, and, by the way, the team to do all that You want Turning Point to do.”
“Finally, Father,” he added, “I ask Your blessing on everyone here. Will You stir in their hearts a moment to examine, a moment to engage, and the strength to endure. Father, will You shine Your face upon each and every one and may they know Your peace. Father, we pray all of this in the mighty name of Your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And all God’s people say, amen.”
As he left the stage he pointed to an empty chair draped with a white freedom shirt and a hat — a deliberate memorial for Kirk. Students responded with chants of “USA! USA! USA!” as they processed the scene, caught between grief, patriotism, and faith. For those watching, the evening became less about rhetoric and more about rescue and direction.
Politics will keep making headlines from events like this, but the night’s lasting image was simple: a governor inviting a room of students to pray, a public space briefly turned into a place of worship and witness. My hope is that those moments draw people to a stronger faith and lead students to explore hope that lasts beyond any campaign season.