John Avlon

John Phillips Avlon (born January 19, 1973) is an American journalist, political commentator, and Democratic political candidate.

Avlon was born in 1973 in New York City to Dianne Alexander (née Phillips) and John Jeffrey Avlon, a lawyer and real estate executive with companies in Charleston, South Carolina, and New York City.

He is of Greek descent, and his grandparents were immigrants.

He was educated at Milton Academy, an independent preparatory school in Milton, Massachusetts.

He is a childhood friend and schoolmate of Matthew Pottinger.

He earned his BA from Yale University and an MBA from Columbia University.

Avlon started his career as the youngest speechwriter for Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

He was promoted to Chief Speechwriter and the deputy director of Policy.

He prepared the mayor's addresses for the State of the city (1999 through 2001), testimony to Congress on homeland security, and address to the United Nations General Assembly on counterterrorism.

He was also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

He is an advisory board member of the Citizens Union of New York, Bronx Academy of Letters, and the Theodore Roosevelt Association.

His essay on New York, "The Resilient City", written after the 9/11 attacks, was selected to conclude the anthology Empire City: New York Through the Centuries (2002).

Avlon is the author of several books, including Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics (2004), which critically appraises both traditional American centrism and the more recent radical centrism.

Avlon first appeared on television in 2005 on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to discuss his book Independent Nation.

He credits this debut with the launch of his TV career.

Avlon joined The Daily Beast in 2008 one month after its launch.

He worked his way up through the organization starting as a columnist and moving on to political editor, executive editor and then managing editor.

He also wrote Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America (2010).

Avlon has been interviewed in several documentaries including HBO's Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists, 2010's Gerrymandering, History Channel's miniseries Washington and CNN's Lincoln: Divided We Stand.

In September 2021 CNN announced the debut of the digital series Reality Check with John Avlon: Extremist Beat, which will track the rise of extremist groups in America.

Avlon hopes the series can contextualize the history and development of these types of movements within American history saying, "At the end of the day, a lot of these things riff off older conspiracies. And I think by pulling out and drawing those connections, people can all of a sudden have perspective on what they may have been sucked into," explaining "we add that additional layer that I think is a lot more than what you get just by the daily thrust and parry of the news and chronicling the crazy."

In 2023, Reality Check won the New York Press Club award for best TV commentary.

Avlon has written numerous articles and essays.

He wrote the Newsweek cover-story: "A 21st Century Statesman," (February 28, 2011), about actor, director and activist George Clooney.

It was based in part on Avlon's trip accompanying Clooney to South Sudan to witness the referendum for independence from the North after two decades of civil war.

He is a senior political analyst and anchor at CNN and was the editor-in-chief and managing director of The Daily Beast from 2013 to 2018.

Avlon was previously a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun and chief speechwriter for former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani.

In 2013 Avlon became editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. By September 2014 the website reached a new record of 21 million unique visitors; it was a 60% year-over-year increase in readers, accompanied by a 300% increase in the overall size of its social media community.

During Avlon's leadership The Daily Beast doubled its traffic to 1.1 million readers a day and won over 17 awards for journalistic excellence.

In January 2017, Avlon published Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations, in which he highlights the history and content of President George Washington's parting treatise to the American people in the context of the contemporary political climate.

His most recent book is Lincoln and the Fight for Peace.

It is a historical analysis of Lincoln's rebuilding the nation from the Civil War and how those efforts carried on past his assassination.

In May 2018, Avlon announced his departure from The Daily Beast and moving to CNN as Senior Political Analyst and Anchor.

Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive of IAC, issued a statement shortly after Avlon announced his departure, "John Avlon has been a superb editorial leader of the Daily Beast. He’s built a formidable newsroom, and a culture of excellence and decency. I only wish him the best for the future, and greatly am appreciative of his bringing Noah Shachtman onboard as his deputy so that we’re in the position to continue the fine work of the Daily Beast."

Avlon has made appearances on a variety of television shows such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show, and Real Time with Bill Maher, as well as on news programs on MSNBC, PBS, CNN, and C-SPAN.

Avlon created and hosted the "Wingnut of the Week" segment on CNN.

Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker wrote that "Americans who are fed up with the Ann Coulter/Michael Moore school of debate, and are looking for someone to articulate a common sense middle path, may have found their voice in John Avlon."

In June 2018, Avlon moved to CNN full time as Senior Political Analyst making daily appearances on New Day, as well as guest anchoring for programs including State of America and Reliable Sources.

His segment "Reality Check" on New Day was referred to as "a standout, and a welcome feature on television in a current era lacking in reality-based news coverage."

Digital news outlet Mediaite, in referring to Avlon's New Day segment said, "Need a fascinating but unexpected perspective on the news of the day? John Avlon’s recurring segment “Reality Check” is a hit."