1. Kevin Bruce Zeese was an American lawyer, US Senate candidate and political activist.
28 Facts About Kevin Zeese
1. 2.
Kevin Zeese worked to end the war on drugs and mass incarceration, and was instrumental in organizing the 2011 Occupy encampment in Washington, DC at Freedom Plaza and occupying the Venezuelan Embassy in the District of Columbia.
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Kevin Zeese grew up in Queens, New York, where he attended public schools.
4.
Kevin Zeese received a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
5.
Kevin Zeese graduated from the George Washington University Law School in 1980.
6.
Kevin Zeese served as Vice President and Counsel to DPF from 1986 to 1994.
7.
Kevin Zeese was a founder in 1993 of Harm Reduction Coalition, which advocates for a public health approach to drug policy that reduces the harms from drug use and abuse.
8.
In 2006, Kevin Zeese founded a national antiwar group, Voters for Peace and served as its director until 2011.
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Kevin Zeese is listed in the US Peace Registry which provides a summary of his work.
10.
Kevin Zeese had his first official campaign involvement serving as an advisor to Linda Schade, who was running for the Maryland House of Delegates in 2002.
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From 2003 onward, Kevin Zeese worked on a broad range of progressive issues and third-party and independent electoral campaigns.
12.
Kevin Zeese was primarily active with the Green Party and even ran for office himself.
13.
In 2003, Kevin Zeese went to California to work on the gubernatorial campaign of Peter Camejo in the election that followed the recall of Governor Gray Davis.
14.
Kevin Zeese was involved in writing position papers and organizing grassroots support for Camejo.
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In 2004, Kevin Zeese joined the presidential campaign of Ralph Nader.
16.
Kevin Zeese went on to become press secretary and spokesperson for Nader, and worked with Nader in drafting position statements.
17.
Kevin Zeese ran for the US Senate for Maryland in 2006 against Democrat Ben Cardin and Republican Michael Steele.
18.
Therefore, Kevin Zeese ran on the Maryland Green Party ticket, with the Libertarians and Populists endorsing the nomination.
19.
Kevin Zeese called his campaign the "Unity Campaign" and ran on a reform platform that advocated the withdrawal of US troops and corporate interests from Iraq, economic justice, an end to corporate welfare, and electronic voting reform.
20.
Kevin Zeese was a vocal critic of the "hawkish" Israel lobby in the United States and Israel's 2006 bombing campaign against Lebanon.
21.
Kevin Zeese challenged incumbent US congressman Ben Cardin, who has close ties to the lobby, to break his silence on alleged Israeli wrongdoing.
22.
Kevin Zeese was the first third-party candidate included in three-way debate; only one debate was publicly televised, the final Senatorial debate on Friday, November 3,2006.
23.
In 2016, Kevin Zeese served as an advisor to the US Senate Campaign of Margaret Flowers, his partner and a pediatrician.
24.
In 2020, Kevin Zeese served as press secretary to the Presidential Campaign of Howie Hawkins until his death.
25.
Kevin Zeese was an outspoken supporter of the Bolivarian Revolution and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela's policies.
26.
Kevin Zeese was an ardent supporter of Nicolas Maduro, and argued during the Venezuelan presidential crisis that Maduro was the legitimate President of Venezuela, while stating that Juan Guaido's appointment as Interim President by the National Assembly was a coup by the US government.
27.
The group was officially led by Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, but Kevin Zeese was prominently visible as a spokesman for the group and for the policies and interests of the Maduro government.
28.
On September 6,2020, Kevin Zeese died suddenly from a heart attack.