John Avlon

John Phillips Avlon, born on January 19, 1973, in New York City, is an American journalist and political commentator. His parents are Dianne Alexander (née Phillips) and John Jeffrey Avlon, a lawyer and real estate executive with ties to Charleston, South Carolina, and New York City. Avlon is of Greek descent; his grandparents were immigrants to the United States.

He attended Milton Academy, an independent preparatory school located in Milton, Massachusetts. Avlon earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and subsequently obtained a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University.

Avlon began his professional career as a speechwriter for Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York City. He eventually served as Giuliani’s chief speechwriter and deputy director of policy. He was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and held advisory roles with organizations such as the Citizens Union of New York, the Bronx Academy of Letters, and the Theodore Roosevelt Association.

In 2008, Avlon joined The Daily Beast, a digital news outlet, shortly after its launch. His initial roles included columnist, followed by positions as political editor, executive editor, and managing editor. In 2013, he was appointed as the editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, a role he held until 2018. During his tenure, he was recognized for supporting original and breaking content. In May 2018, Avlon announced his departure from the publication.

Following his departure, Avlon joined CNN as a senior political analyst and anchor. He has appeared on programs such as New Day, State of America, and Reliable Sources. Additionally, he has made guest appearances on television shows including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show, and Real Time with Bill Maher. Avlon created and hosted the "Wingnut of the Week" segment on CNN. He has been featured in documentaries and series, including HBO's Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists, the documentary Gerrymandering (2010), History Channel's Washington, and CNN's Lincoln: Divided We Stand. In September 2021, CNN announced a digital series titled Reality Check with John Avlon: Extremist Beat, focused on tracking extremist groups in the U.S. In 2024, he participated as a commentator in the six-part History Channel docuseries Thomas Jefferson.

As an author, Avlon has published several books. His 2010 work, *Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America*, explores the development of fringe political movements in the United States. He co-edited *Deadline Artists: America's Greatest Newspaper Columns* in 2011 with Jesse Angelo and Errol Louis, which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly; a sequel, *Deadline Artists 2: Scandals, Tragedies and Triumphs*, was published in 2012. His 2017 book, *Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations*, examines George Washington's farewell address. In 2021, he published *Lincoln and the Fight for Peace*, focusing on the final weeks of Abraham Lincoln’s life.

Avlon has been involved in political activism; in 2010, he co-founded No Labels, a bipartisan political organization, although he distanced himself from the group after 2013. In 2023, he authored a column critical of No Labels’ third-party presidential efforts. He was appointed to the New York City Voter Assistance Advisory Committee in 2011 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In the 2024 election cycle, Avlon announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York's 1st congressional district. He won the Democratic primary on June 25, defeating Nancy Goroff but lost the general election on November 5 to incumbent Republican Nick LaLota. Notably, Avlon outperformed Kamala Harris' vote share in the district, which was more favorable to the Republican candidate compared to other elections.

Avlon holds leadership roles on various boards, including the board of governors for the Overseas Press Club and the board of directors for the House of Speakeasy. He served as co-chair in efforts to preserve John Steinbeck’s home in Sag Harbor as a writers’ retreat, and he is the Chair of the Citizens Union Board of Directors.

His personal life includes marriage to Margaret Hoover, a political commentator and host of PBS’s *Firing Line*. Margaret Hoover is a great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover. The couple has two children, a son born in 2013 and a daughter born in 2015.

**Selected Publications:**

- *Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics* (2004)

- *Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America* (2010)

- *Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations* (2017)

- *Lincoln and the Fight for Peace* (2022)