John Avlon

BACKGROUND

• Avlon, 51, of Sag Harbor, is running on the Democratic Party line in the general election. He is a journalist, author and former political commentator at CNN.
• He has served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, a senior fellow at the nonprofit Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and has written books about American presidents.
• Avlon received a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Yale University in 1996 and an MBA from Columbia University in 2006.

ISSUES

• Avlon said he stands against extremism and for protection of democracy.
• He said that if elected he would focus on addressing the high cost of living, and said he backs full restoration of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction.
• Avlon said he backs protection of reproductive rights. “It’s outrageous that a young woman in America today has fewer rights than her mother did,” he said.