Erika Kirk can't escape Candace Owens

The Erika Kirk and Candace Owens feud is tearing MAGA apart
The widow vs. the podcaster drama reveals the right's biggest weakness

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published December 15, 2025 6:45AM (EST)


(Salon) In the days after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10, the MAGA influencer class united in a public display of grief for the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA). The mourning soon devolved into a public competition over who could perform sadness the loudest, which was the first indicator of what his loss would beget: a mad scramble to take advantage of a chance to seize bigger audiences, and more profit and power, in the right-wing media ecosystem.

The swift anointing of Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika as the new head of TPUSA did nothing to prevent the explosion of infighting that has been rapidly consuming the world of online MAGA media in the months since her husband’s killing. If anything, it’s backfired. As I predicted, Kirk is turning out to be a weak and ineffectual leader, persuading even more people in the very online right that now is their moment to get ahead in a crowded field.

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The current bucket-of-crabs situation of the online right is complex, but the biggest feud that’s emerging is between Kirk and far-right podcaster Candace Owens, who used to work for TPUSA and then for the Daily Wire, but she apparently proved too open about her antisemitic leanings to stay with either organization for too long. She reportedly remained friends with Charlie Kirk, but that didn’t stop her from seizing his killing as an opportunity to attack the power that TPUSA has amassed in the past couple of years in an obvious bid to grow her already robust media empire.

....(snip)....

All the while, Owens’ rhetoric about Erika Kirk has grown increasingly personal. Most shockingly, she keeps implying Kirk was involved in her husband’s murder, and accusing her of defrauding TPUSA donors. Last week, Owens released a video saying Kirk doesn’t have the strength to lead TPUSA, which follows pointed comments she made in early December about about how “in love” Charlie Kirk had been with a woman she says he dated before meeting his wife. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/12/15/the-erika-kirk-and-candace-owens-feud-is-tearing-maga-apart/