Arizona committee advances Charlie Kirk plaza bill

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) - The Arizona state Senate Government Committee advanced a bill to rename a Phoenix plaza in honor of conservative leader Charlie Kirk.

The committee members voted 4-3 to pass Senate Bill 1686, which renames the Wesley Bolin Plaza as the Wesley Bolin and Charlie Kirk Freedom Plaza.

In addition, SB 1686 will create memorials to Kirk and journalist Don Bolles.

Kirk, a Scottsdale, Ariz., resident who was cofounder and CEO of Turning Point USA, was killed Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at his organization's rally at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Bolles was a reporter for The Arizona Republic who died in 1976 after a bomb exploded underneath his car in retaliation for his investigative work. 

State Sen. Jake Hoffman, the sponsor of SB 1686, said he had been friends with Kirk for 11 years. Hoffman called Kirk an “incredible man and the civil rights leader of the 21st century.”

Kirk’s assassination was “tragic” and “heartbreaking,” Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, told The Center Square.

“He was assassinated standing up for civil debate,” which is “protected by the First Amendment,” the state senator added.

Bolles is also someone who died exercising his First Amendment rights, Hoffman said, noting having memorials for Bolles and Kirk “makes a lot of sense.”

The senator said Bolles and Kirk “were killed because of their work and their willingness to speak freely.”

The bill says Arizona taxpayer money will not be used for either memorial. Hoffman said all memorials at Wesley Boland Plaza are “privately funded.”

To get a memorial placed at the plaza, a law must be passed authorizing it because the memorial would be on state property, Hoffman explained.

Once a memorial is privately financed, the donations are transferred over to Arizona, he said.

Then the state “allows the placement of the memorial," Hoffman explained.

Hoffman said he chose to rename Wesley Buller Plaza because it is known as a “town square in our state for free speech.”

“Organizations and the causes on the right and left utilize the plaza to engage in free speech," he told The Center Square. "Given the nexus between Charlie and free speech, I felt naming this the Freedom Plaza was befitting."