Portion of Fruitville Road could honor Charlie Kirk

Much like Sarasota County commissioners did this week with a rock-guitar legend, so, too, are they doing with a slain political figure and commentator.

With a unanimous vote on Wednesday, county commissioners approved setting in motion a plan to honor Charlie Kirk with an as-yet-unspecified stretch of Fruitville Road. The move would create The Charlie Kirk Memorial Road, Commissioner Theresa Mast suggested near the end of Wednesday’s meeting.

Commissioners earlier in the day approved asking state legislators during the 2026 session to honor longtime Sarasota County resident and Southern rock-music icon Dickey Betts with a stretch of U.S. 41 by designating it The Dickey Betts Memorial Highway. 

A Kirk resolution would still require a commission vote on the formal request to Tallahassee, which would include boundaries. Sarasota's new county administration office complex on Fruitville Road is expected to open in 2026.

The Betts resolution went from suggestion to formal vote in about eight weeks.

Kirk and his family have owned a condominium on the south end of Longboat Key since 2019. He was instrumental in social-media video site Rumble moving its headquarters to the beach town in 2023. Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA and was an early investor in Rumble.

“I’d like this county to continue to show the respect for what his life stood for and what it will continue to stand for,’’ Mast said.

Kirk, 31, was shot to death Sept. 10 during an appearance at Utah Valley College in Orem. Since then, dozens of communities and organizations have taken action to name roads or other facilities in his honor.

A bill filed for the upcoming legislative session by a Pasco County Republican calls for state colleges and universities to rename campus roadways for Kirk or risk losing state funding.

Earlier in the week, Manatee County moved ahead with memorializing Kirk with a section of Bradenton’s 51st Street for Kirk, and in September, New College officials announced they were commissioning a statue of Kirk on campus.

If approved in Tallahassee, Dickey Betts Memorial Highway would be Sarasota County’s 15th state-designated memorial road, with Kirk as the 16th.