The Coalition is You!
The coalition is not about any one of us. The coalition is about all of us. All of us coming together regardless of political party or ideology under the common banner of having more open debates in 2016.
If you share this belief you can join the coalition (it’s free) as an individual or an organization, or both.
- If you’re an individual and you want to show (and maybe demonstrate) your support then click on the “Citizens Coalition for Open Debates in 2016 link” here.
- If you’re an organization and you want to show and demonstrate your support then click on the the “Organizations for Open Debates in 2016” link here.
The Initiators
Ben Swann
spent 14 years working as a journalist in broadcast news, and began his career as a news photographer and moved up the ladder to reporter, morning anchor/reporter, prime time anchor/reporter. Along the way he won a Long Horn Emmy Award and two Edward R. Murrow awards. For a number of years he covered Mexico’s drug war. At that time, he came to believe that the national media was not interested in the truth of what was happening in Mexico or the problems associated with the failed “war on drugs” in the United States.
In 2010, Ben moved north to Cincinnati, Ohio to take a prime time anchor job with WXIX and there became the producer/writer/anchor of a segment called “Reality Check”. It was while covering the 2012 Republican Presidential primary that he began to confront the problems in the American electoral process, the stranglehold of America’s two party system and the suppression of voters’ choices by mainstream media. In 2012, he became the first journalist in the nation to confront President Barack Obama directly in an interview about the Constitutionality of the “kill list” and the only journalist to confront Mitt Romney about the railroading of duly elected delegates during the 2012 Republican National Convention.
Thanks to a passionate following, Ben Swann’s work has become an internet phenomenon with over 10 million video views in over 140 countries.
Ben has left network television and gone independent and online, and can now be found at http://benswann.com/
Robin Koerner of Blue Republician
is a Huffington Post contributor and the founder of watchingamerica.com, a website dedicated to providing articles, translated into English, written about the U.S. by foreigners with the goal of helping to raise the level of debate, open minds, and promote understanding among the people of the world. Robin, with his global perspective on things here in America, has become increasingly concerned with what he sees as an unnecessary and false left/right divide that needs to be redefined for the times we find ourselves living in, and has come up with out of the box ways to help us get there.
Robin’s newest organization, “Blue Republican” was the biggest coalition to endorse Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign (and was featured on Ron Paul’s campaign website and in the Wikipedia page about his 2012 campaign) before endorsing Gary Johnson after Ron Paul withdrew from the race.
KrisAnne Hall
Kris Anne Hall is an attorney and former prosecutor, fired after teaching the Constitution to conservative activist groups – she would not sacrifice liberty for a paycheck. She is a disabled veteran of the US Army, a former Russian linguist, a mother, a pastor’s wife and a patriot. She now travels the country and teaches the Constitution and the history that gave us our founding documents. KrisAnne Hall does not just teach the Constitution, she lays the foundations that show how reliable and relevant our founding documents are today.
Born and raised in St. Louis, MO. She received her undergraduate degree in Bio-Chemistry from Blackburn College in 1991 and her J.D. from the University of Florida, Levin College of Law. KrisAnne worked for nearly a decade with the state prosecutor’s office and two years with a prominent law firm defending religious liberty and first amendment rights. KrisAnne now resides in North Florida with her husband and her adopted son.
KrisAnne is a national speaker and author of 4 books and over 180 articles dedicated to teaching historical facts about the foundation of American and unteaching revisionist history. She has received numerous national grassroots awards for her defense of the Constitution. She has appeared on debates, television, and radio shows across this Union.
Jacob Dean
Jacob Dean is the host and producer of the radically liberal Filter Free Radio. Jacob got his degree in radio broadcasting and after working for several different radio stations in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, he became an associate producer at The Thom Hartmann Program, the largest nationally syndicated progressive show. Jacob became very politically active while working with Thom Hartmann in DC, attending lots of protests, participating in the Occupy Movement and much more. In 2011, Jacob started Filter Free Radio to share his activism, address the issues ignored by the corporate media, to raise awareness, and to mobilize the people. In 2012, Jacob left the Thom Hartmann Program to return home to Portland and still continues to broadcast FFR (with “Skeptical Scott” who he met at a Drinking Liberally event) every Monday evening.
Jacob believes that the American electoral process, the presidential debates, and the status quo all need serious improvement and that now more than ever it’s time to find real independent alternative sustainable solutions to our systemic problems and that The Coalition for Open Debates 2016 is a huge step in the right direction!
Zak Carter
is an Army veteran of Iraq who is upset that he came home to less freedom after being told he was fighting for it overseas.
After working on several political campaigns in an attempt to help restore some of that lost freedom, he came to believe that he needed to help change the media coverage of candidates with ideas and solutions that were not being given fair time in front of cameras because they weren’t ideas embraced by the democrat or republican party establishment.
In 2012 Zak had an epiphany of what an open debate could accomplish if a little extra ground work was added with a little celebrity star power and worked as Free and Equal Election Foundation’s communication director and co-produced two open debates that were moderated by Larry King and Thom Hartmann and viewed by an estimated global audience of 20 million people.
It was impressive to some people, but just a warm up for Zak, who came up with a plan to take the Open Debates to another level in 2016.
