Representative Sarah Vance

Media Coverage

Homer Independent Press

Vance under ethics investigation
January 29, 2026

Includes Rep. Vance's Letter to the Homer News, which is the basis of the ethics investigation. 

Original Story from the Homer News, September 23, 2025

Original web version of the Homer News story Chloe Pleznac wrote and that was published on the web site on Sept. 23. 

Homer holds vigil for Charlie Kirk; highlights opening of local Turning Point Education private school

The vigil was organized in part by District 6 Rep. Sarah Vance.

By Chloe Pleznac • September 23, 2025 8:30 am

Hundreds of people gathered on the beach Wednesday, Sept. 17, to remember Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed while holding a campus event in Utah for his organization, Turning Point USA, on Sept. 10.

Kirk was a far-right political activist and Christian-Nationalist icon. He regularly toured college campuses across the country, engaging college students in debates where he defended his often racist and controversial views, including criticism of the Civil Rights Act and the work of Martin Luther King Jr., opposition to gun control and affirmative action, and his perpetuation of conspiracy theories, including COVID-19 and climate misinformation, as well as replacement theory.

Kirk became civically engaged while still in high school, making his first appearance on Fox News at the age of 17 and co-founding Turning Point USA at 18, after dropping out of college. Turning Point produces resources for conservative students, including Professor Watchlist, a website created to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom,” and Turning Point Education, which supports a network of schools across the country that promote conservative, Christian values.

The vigil in Homer was organized by District 6 Rep. Sarah Vance and community member Cassie Lawver and began with remarks from Lawver, who noted that Kirk’s passing has “become very political.”

“While we are here to honor Charlie and pray for his family, there’s always the possibility that someone may want to come and cause disruption,” said Lawver. “Stay where you’re at, and if it gets hectic, just kind of hit the ground, and whoever’s standing we’ll know who it is.”

Lawver read aloud from a eulogy she found on the Turning Point USA website, before welcoming Glacierview Baptist Church pastor, Andy Miller, to speak.

Miller said Kirk’s goal was never to “antagonize people for the sake of it.”

“He wanted to speak the truth,” said Miller, to the gathered crowd. “And he did, at least, usually in love, because lying to someone is not love, and some of those truths, when a person is caught up in it, are hard to hear.”

She said it was important to keep Kirk’s wife and two children in prayers, “more than any movement, more than any political movement.”

Miller went on to acknowledge that Kirk wasn’t perfect, “because he was a human being,” and reminded the crowd to “love your neighbor as yourself,” claiming that’s what Kirk did each day.

In her remarks, Vance said many have been asking themselves, “Why are we so grieved by the loss of this one man?” and, after further reflection, she said she realized it’s because he embodies the values and the life that “we aspire to,” describing Kirk as “a man of conviction who was well read, highly knowledgeable, articulate and bold.”

“He was murdered in front of hundreds of young people because of what he was saying,” said Vance. “And so we asked, ‘Are we next?’ If we speak up about what we believe in and what the truth is about our country, about our faith, about biology, are we going to be targeted?”

She said the legacy that Kirk left is one that “will not die,” noting that it is not a political turn, but rather a spiritual one.

Vance welcomed Homer resident Cat Cushway to the stage, where she announced the formation of a new, local “classical Christian private school.” She said the school, named “Revive Academy,” will serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade and start in the fall of 2026.

Cushway said Revive Academy believes in “partnering with and empowering parents as they fulfill their God given role of educating their children,” seeing children as “gifts from God.”

She said Revive Academy has partnered with Turning Point Education, one of the educational initiatives that Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA created. She described its mission as “to restore God in the classroom, revive traditional values, reclaim the foundational works that shaped our nation’s founding and rebuild education to focus on the child, the family, the church and the community.” She said Revive Academy is one of only 11 Turning Point 5C Schools nationwide. The 5C model stands for Christian, classical, conservative, collaborative, and cost-effective.

The gathering ended with worship music performed by local musician and former America’s Got Talent contestant, Silas Luke Jones.

Vance said on closing that Turning Point USA has seen more than 54,000 requests to start new chapters, since Kirk’s death on Sept. 10.

On Sept. 18, the US Senate declared Oct. 14 — Kirk’s birthday — as “National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk.”

You can find the near entirety of Rep. Vance’s speech at the vigil on Sept. 17 online by visiting the Homer News Facebook or Instagram pages.