Overview
- Gov. Jeff Landry posted a video from LSU’s campus challenging the Board of Supervisors to install a Charlie Kirk statue, framing it as a stand for free speech and urging LSU to be the first campus to do so.
- Landry’s call followed his appearance at a Turning Point USA event in Baton Rouge that organizers said drew more than 1,500 attendees, including conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey.
- LSU has not issued a public response to the governor’s request, and no statue proposal has been approved or placed on the board’s agenda.
- Reaction was swift: LSU women’s basketball star Flau’Jae Johnson questioned the idea on X and later criticized Kirk’s rhetoric, while LSU professor emeritus Robert Mann and other academics denounced honoring him.
- The push comes as national GOP figures, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, advocate for memorials to Kirk, whose September killing at Utah Valley University led to charges against suspect Tyler Robinson, and as some Louisiana campuses have resisted TPUSA affiliations.