Small-town Texas Revolts Over Proposed Charlie Kirk Memorial

Locals filled a Bastrop County commissioners meeting earlier this week to push back against a proposal to memorialize bigoted far-right pundit Charlie Kirk. 

After County Commissioner David Glass proposed a “Charlie Kirk Corridor” in the up-and-coming tech hub neighboring Austin, over a hundred people aired their grievances until the motion was inevitably tabled.

"I'm going to take a breath and have some more conversations with my constituents," Glass told the Austin American-Statesman.

It’s unclear why Glass would be vying for a Kirk memorial in his county, of all places, but the area isn’t a nobody on the map. Bastrop County is home to about 115,000 residents—as well as many of billionaire Elon Musk’s corporations.

Though Bastrop County used to be a quieter area, it has shot up in growth since Musk packed up what was once known as Twitter from its home in California and relocated it to the little-known area. 

Now, Bastrop and nearby counties and towns are home to X, Starlink, and the Boring Company, Musk’s environmentally stained tunneling outfit. 

As Daily Kos has previously reported, the Tesla CEO built residential and commercial areas for his employees throughout the area. Residents now have Musk’s company towns. They even have Ad Astra, Musk’s attempted Montessori-style school that seems to be operating today as a “licensed child care program” for roughly 10 children under the age of 5, according to The New York Times. 

But all of this economic movement, despite locals’ alleged environmental violations, is great for the town and—for Glass—he seems to be interested in expanding further. The county commissioner has recently been pushing for Texas State University to bring its campus to the area as well. 

Daily Kos contacted Glass for comment on this story but did not hear back before publication.

It’s unclear if Glass’ push for a Kirk memorial is an appeal for more MAGA-aligned businesses to break ground in his area or if Glass just really loves the far-right pundit with a history of racism. 

However, regardless of his motives, Glass’ constituents clearly feel differently about the matter.