参议院DOGE委员会主席乔尼·恩斯特（Joni Ernst）周四接受福克斯数字新闻采访时表示，她可能领导着国会中较时髦的党团之一——该党团吸引了年轻保守派参与政策辩论——但在这方面没人比查理·柯克（Charlie Kirk）做得更好。

欧内斯特的女儿毕业于西点军校，她在参议院委员会听证会上第一个将柯克的死讯告知了她。

厄恩斯特回忆道："当时我正在参加小企业委员会的会议，女儿突然发短信告诉我查理中枪了。我一边努力集中精力听听证会，一边通过她的消息了解事态进展。"

她的女儿看过网上流传的视频后对她说：“查理绝无生还可能。”厄恩斯特回应道：“祈祷吧，亲爱的，因为奇迹确实存在。但遗憾的是，这次我们没能如愿以偿。”

这位参议员表示，柯克（Charlie Kirk）的言论在她的家人中引起深刻共鸣。"他们一直关注查理·柯克及其主张，并对他以《圣经》为根基、信奉上帝之言感到无比振奋。他确实吸引了大批年轻保守派——那些自认为失去话语权的人，尤其是在拜登总统推行四年‘觉醒主义’议程之后。"她说道。

来自爱荷华州的共和党参议员厄恩斯特（Ernst）表示，她的女儿和女婿很欣赏柯克（Kirk）愿意直接与对手辩论的态度。她说："这让他们在与朋友和同事讨论困难话题时感到更加自在。"

[柯克]为人踏实，始终坚持说真话，因此大家都很欣赏他。他们在Instagram等不同平台上关注了他。

恩斯特表示，她和家人之所以被柯克吸引，是因为他能够毫无顾虑地与任何人进行文明辩论，这也让他们乐于与朋友和同事讨论类似话题。

不幸的是，这场悲剧正如我们所预料的那样发生了，因为她通过网络上发布的所有信息目睹了整个过程。

我向她和她的丈夫保证，他的声音将继续传播，像她这样的人也会放大这一声音。因此，他的使命将得以延续。

欧内斯特（Ernst）的DOGE项目在埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）的推动下迅速走红，成功吸引年轻人加入保守派阵营。

这位议员指出，早在"DOGE型工作"这一术语出现之前，她就已经在从事此类工作了。恩斯特（Ernst）首次当选参议员后发表声明，承诺要通过削减所谓的"猪肉桶支出"让华盛顿政界"叫苦连天"。

在此之前，我曾担任县审计员，之后进入州参议院工作。虽然我一直从事预算监督工作，但进入参议院后，我开始了我的‘Squeal’项目。直到[马斯克]和特朗普总统大力推广狗狗币（DOGE），这个项目才真正起步。查理·柯克（Charlie Kirk）的情况也类似。

在柯克之前，已故电台主持人拉什·林博（Rush Limbaugh）曾在1980至1990年代影响了一代被称为"林博宝贝"的年轻保守派。这些听众长期收听他的调幅谈话节目，并认为他塑造了自己早期的政治观点。

林博（Limbaugh）在2006年表示："[Rush Babies]现象生动展现了观念如何形成、观点如何被验证，以及有时这一过程会持续多久。"这番感慨与人们对柯克（Kirk）的评价如出一辙：

我一直坚信，我们在此建立的基业将历久弥新。虽然偶尔可能会在选举中失利，但这些根基已然深厚，未来只会更加根深蒂固。

尽管人们常将林博（Limbaugh）的政治魅力与柯克（Kirk）等新晋人物相提并论，但厄恩斯特（Ernst）指出，后者与年轻保守派之间的共鸣甚至超过了这位已故评论员。

她说：“我喜欢拉什（Rush），无意冒犯，但我认为查理（Charlie）更胜一筹。”

他真正抓住了下一代人的心，并主动走近他们——不仅通过电台或广播发声，更切实地走出去与那些可能与他观点迥异的人面对面交流，甘愿承受明枪暗箭，直至生命的最后时刻。

她补充道：“我认为年轻人很难进行面对面交流，正如我们在他的多场辩论中所见。”她举例称，一些批评者因忙于玩手机或不习惯人际互动，在与他辩论时显得力不从心。

我认为他甚至比拉什还要出色。然而他的人生如此短暂，这实在令人深感不幸与悲痛。

Joni Ernst , chair of the Senate DOGE Committee, may lead one of the more hip caucuses in Congress C which has attracted young conservatives to policy debates C but no one has done that better than Charlie Kirk, she told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday.

Ernsts daughter, a West Point graduate, first broke the news of Kirks death to her during a Senate committee hearing.

"I was actually sitting in a Small Business Committee meeting and my daughter texted me that Charlie had been shot," Ernst recalled. "I was trying to pay attention to the hearing while getting updates from her on what was happening."

Her daughter, who had seen videos circulating online, told her, "Theres no way that Charlie is alive." Ernst responded, "Pray, honey, because miracles happen. Unfortunately, this wasnt what we prayed for."

The senator said Kirks message resonated deeply with her family. "They have followed Charlie Kirk and his message, and they're always so excited that he is biblically founded, he believes in God's word, and he has really drawn in a lot of young conservatives people who felt they didn't have a voice, especially after the four years under President Biden with all of his woke agenda," she said.

Ernst, R-Iowa, said that her daughter and son-in-law admired Kirks willingness to debate opponents directly. "It made them more comfortable discussing difficult topics with friends and coworkers," she said.

"[Kirk was] really grounded and centered in speaking truth. So they appreciated that. They followed him on Instagram and different platforms."

Ernst said she and her family were also drawn to Kirk by his lack of apprehension to civilly debate anyone C and led them to be comfortable discussing similar topics with friends and coworkers.

"Unfortunately, the tragedy is as we thought it would be because she saw it unfold with all the postings that were out there.

"The reassurance that I have to her and her husband are that his voice will continue to be out there and folks like her, they'll amplify it too. So his mission will live on."

Ernsts DOGE work , simultaneously popularized by Elon Musk, helped bring young people into the conservative fold.

The lawmaker noted she had been working on DOGE-type work before the term even came into being. After her first election to the Senate, Ernst put out a statement pledging to make Washington "squeal" C in terms of slashing so-called pork-barrel spending.

"Prior to that, I was a county auditor and then in the state Senate. I've always been engaged in oversight of budgets, but coming into the senate, I have my Squeal work. It really didn't take off until we had [Musk] and President Trump really promoting DOGE. And Charlie Kirk was the same," she said.

Prior to Kirk, the late radio host Rush Limbaugh inspired a generation of so-called "Rush Babies" in the 1980s and 1990s young conservatives who regularly tuned into his AM talk show and credited him with shaping their early political views.

" [Rush Babies] simply illustrate how minds are shaped, opinions are validated, and sometimes how long it can take," Limbaugh said in 2006, expressing sentiments that echoed what has been said of Kirk:

"I have always felt confident that whats being built here is going to last a long, long time. You might lose an election here and there, obviously, but these kinds of roots, theyre deep, and theyre going to get even deeper."

While comparisons have been drawn between Limbaughs political magnetism and that of newer faces like Kirk, Ernst said the latter connected even more with young conservatives than the late commentator.

"I love Rush, and no offense to Rush, but I think Charlie was even moreso," she said.

"He was really capturing that next generation and going to where they were -- not just being on the radio or broadcast -- but actually going out and meeting face-to-face with people that maybe saw very differently than he did, and being willing to take those slings and arrows and most literally on that final day."

"I think it's hard for young people to communicate face-to-face, as we saw in many of his debates," she added, citing how some critics had a difficult time debating him because they were often busy on their phones or were not used to connecting person-to-person.

"I would say he's even more so than Rush. And it's just so unfortunate and tragic that his life was cut so short."