Can Bipartisanship Survive the Rise of the Independent Voter?

A Conversation with No Labels Co-Chair Dr. Ben Chavis

Tuesday March 21st at 3PM ET

Hosted by John Opdycke & Dr. Jessie Fields

America is going independent. Both major parties are hemorrhaging members as voters-including growing numbers of people of color-increasingly see both parties as self interested and self perpetuating, not as engines for progress and policy innovation.

Can traditional notions of bipartisanship be restored in this environment, or does the growing dissatisfaction with “traditional politics” demand something new?

Dr. Benjamin Chavis is a long-time civil rights leader, entrepreneur, businessman, educator, and author. He began his career in 1963 as a statewide youth coordinator for Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, and has been fighting racial injustice and wrongful imprisonment across the country ever since.

As the newly appointed Co-Chair of No Labels, Dr. Chavis is championing bipartisan cooperation and new political tactics in case the 2024 Presidential Election offers the country a choice of extreme candidates. Some political actors and journalists, particularly on the left, are questioning the wisdom of this approach. Other thought leaders see a possible path forward for the country to get back to what it’s lost.

Can we look backwards to move ahead? Can bipartisanship be restored? Should it be restored?

Join the conversation on March 21st to explore these and other questions with one of the most important civil rights leaders of our generation.

REGISTER

Bio:

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is the President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and co-chair of No Labels. He was elected in 2013 to the National Board of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO). He is also the former President, CEO and Co-Founder with Russell Simmons of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN), the world’s largest coalition of hip-hop artists and recording industry executives. Dr. Chavis’ award-winning syndicated column reaches 20 million readers weekly throughout the United States, Africa and the Caribbean.

Dr. Chavis began his career in 1963, as a youth coordinator in NC for the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He earned his Masters of Divinity, M.Div., magna cum laude, from Duke University while serving an unjust 34-year prison sentence as a member of the Wilmington 10, who Amnesty International declared political prisoners, a case that garnered international attention. From 1993 to 1994, Dr. Chavis served as the Executive Director and CEO of the NAACP. Dr. Chavis has authored books and other publications including: An American Political Prisoner Appeals for Human Rights, Psalms from Prison.