ON NOVEMBER 14, shortly before the networks called the Arizona governor’s race for Democrat Katie Hobbs, Charlie Kirk, the 29-year-old conservative activist, asked a guest on his YouTube livestream what Republicans had missed. Since moving to the state in 2018, Kirk and his organization, Turning Point USA, have become one of Arizona’s biggest political power brokers, using the state party apparatus to elevate candidates who showed fealty to former President Donald Trump and purge those who did not. Turning Point had been a launch pad for Hobbs’ opponent, the former local newscaster Kari Lake, and Kirk had for days been predicting an easy victory for the rising conservative star.
“The vibe on the ground was totally different than this, wasn’t it?” he said, head on his hand, looking mystified.
His guest, Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers, was an unlikely source for self-reflection. Last
