Wayne Allyn Root

Wayne Allyn Root
Personal details
Born	(1961-07-20) July 20, 1961 Mount Vernon, New York
Political party	Republican (pre-2007, 2012–present) Libertarian (2007–2012)
Spouse(s)	Debra Root
Children	4
Occupation	TV celebrity, producer, author, CEO, politician
Religion	Jewish, Born again Christian
Website	Root for America

Wayne Allyn Root (born July 20, 1961) is an American businessman, author, politician, television and radio personality, television producer, and political commentator. He was the 2008 Libertarian Party (LP) vice-presidential nominee. Root is a former CNBC host and anchorman, and a columnist and commentator for FoxNews.com. Root is a frequent guest on several nationally syndicated radio shows such as Savage Nation, The Jerry Doyle Show, and Mancow's Morning Madhouse. He makes frequent appearances on various programs on the Fox News Channel, and is a frequent speaker at Tea Party events across the United States.

At the 2008 Libertarian National Convention, Root was eliminated on the fifth ballot in a bid for the party's presidential nomination. He subsequently became the 2008 LP vice presidential candidate alongside Libertarian nominee Bob Barr. In 2010, Root was elected to the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) and re-elected in 2012. He resigned from that position later that year to rejoin the Republican Party. He was later named as Executive Vice Chairman of The Conservative Caucus (TCC) in Washington D.C. Root stated that he was exploring a run as a Republican for U.S. Senate in Nevada in 2016, but instead dedicated his efforts to supporting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. He did not rule out later campaigns.

Root's political columns appear on various conservative web sites, including FoxNews.com, TheBlaze.com, HumanEvents.com, Townhall.com, Breitbart.com, Dailycaller.com, PersonalLiberty.com, as well as The Washington Times.

His national television show "The Wayne Allyn Root Show" is broadcast by Newsmax TV. Root is an opinion columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Early life and education

Root was born in Mount Vernon, New York in 1961, the son of the late David and Stella Root. His father was a butcher from Bronxville, New York, who dabbled in third party politics as one of the original founders of the New York State Conservative Party.

Root graduated as Valedictorian from his high school, Thornton-Donovan School, then graduated from Columbia University in 1983 as a Political Science major. This would place him in the same graduating class as President Barack Obama. Root has stated that he has no recollection of having ever met or seen Obama at Columbia. He believes that Obama was born in the United States, but pretended to Columbia to be a foreign student to receive some form of student aid. This subterfuge was later allegedly covered up by the university.

Career

Sports handicapper

Root's TV handicapping career began in New York City on WNBC radio (now WFAN) in the early 1980s. He moved onto NBC "Source Radio Network" syndicated around the country in over 100 markets as a sports talk host. He later became one of the youngest anchormen and national TV hosts in America from 1989 through the early 1990s on Financial News Network (FNN), now known as CNBC. In 2018 he launched a new sports betting information website.

TV producer and personality

Root is Founder and Chairman of Winning Edge International Inc. In the 2000s, he hosted Wayne Allyn Root's Winning Edge, a television show which promoted Root's sports handicapping operation.

Root was the creator, executive producer and co-host (along with HBO's Max Kellerman) of King of Vegas on Spike TV. He is a producer of Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel.

Author

Root is the author of several non-fiction books, including The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide and The Murder of the Middle Class. Other books include The Zen of Gambling,The Joy of Failure!, The King of Vegas' Guide to Gambling, Millionaire Republican, and The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold & Tax Cuts. Root's latest book, released in 2015, is The Power of Relentless: 7 Secrets to Achieving Mega-Success, Financial Freedom and the Life of Your Dreams.

Politics

Root had been a longtime Republican Party member and supporter who self-identified as a Libertarian Republican. In 2007, Root ended his association with the Republican Party and joined the Libertarian Party. He wrote a book on his libertarian views, The Conscience of a Libertarian, which was published in 2009.

In September 2012, Root left the LP and announced his return to major party politics.

2008 presidential campaign

On May 4, 2007, Root declared his candidacy for the Libertarian Party's 2008 presidential nomination on Las Vegas' Fox 5 television station. On February 5, 2008, he placed second in the Missouri Libertarian presidential primary with 18% of the vote (47% voted for "Uncommitted"). He came in second in Arizona and third in California, without campaigning in any of these states.

On May 25, 2008, Root advanced to the fifth ballot of the LP presidential nomination vote at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention before being eliminated and endorsing Bob Barr, who went on to the party's presidential nomination. Root then became the LP vice presidential nominee, securing the nod in the third round of voting for that nomination.

Libertarian National Committee

In 2010, Root ran for the position of chair of the Libertarian National Committee of the Libertarian Party of the United States. He was defeated by Mark Hinkle by a vote of 228–281 in the third round. He subsequently succeeded in being elected to the Libertarian National Committee as an At-Large Member.

In July 2011 Root was elected chair of the "Libertarian National Congressional Committee", a Federal Elections Commission registered entity. He renamed it the "Libertarian National Campaign Committee."

At the 2012 Libertarian National Convention, Root again was elected to the Libertarian National Committee as an At-Large Member, despite being seen by some LP members as being part of the "top-down faction." The party's 2012 presidential candidate Gary Johnson endorsed Root.

In a September 2012 letter, he resigned all Libertarian Party positions, saying he would seek a Senate seat "outside of a third party."

Return to Republican Party in 2012

In September 2012, Root re-joined the Republican Party and endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. He predicted Romney would win the election against incumbent President Barack Obama, citing, among other factors, that the "Enthusiasm Factor" for Romney was "huge".

Following Romney's defeat in the election, Root commented in a Fox News editorial: "Well, I was wrong. The 2012 electorate looked almost identical to 2008. Obama's supporters didn’t just come for a second helping of misery—they came out enthusiastically and even appeared to cheer for more."

U.S. Senate campaign efforts and beyond

Root announced that he intended to run as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Nevada, the seat that was held by Democratic Senator Harry Reid. However, in the end he did not run.

He supported Republican nominee Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Root was opening speaker for Donald Trump's kick-off rally in Las Vegas during the 2016 presidential campaign. At the rally, Root strongly criticized the planned social and economic policies of Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin, comparing them to the suicidal outcome of "Thelma and Louise". Root continued to support Trump in office.

Political positions

Root supports smaller government, reduced spending, reduced entitlements, reduced bureaucracy, dramatically lower taxes, and greater personal freedom for all individuals. In the area of education, he supports more parental control, more emphasis on school choice (moving education to the state and local level), and increased competition through vouchers. Root and his wife choose to home-school their children. He is also a strong supporter of gun rights for the individual. Root is a small businessman who believes the 2-party system is built on corruption, greed and bribery. He is a fiscal conservative. He believes most social issues should be determined at the state and local level. Root calls for the repeal of the income tax and favors replacing it, as well as all other sources of federal tax revenues, with a tax on each state in proportion to its population, with each state deciding for itself how to raise its share of the money, as is mentioned in Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution.

During the Ebola epidemic, Root said that President Obama must be impeached "before he kills us all" with terrorists who have the Ebola virus. Root also makes extreme voter fraud allegations, saying President Obama only won reelection because “Democratic voters across this country are voting four times, five times, 10 times each for the Democrats.” Root wrote a column that said Obama was using the Ferguson protests as part of "his plan to destroy this country."

In another published commentary, Root speculated that President Obama attended Columbia University as a foreign exchange student, citing his "gut instinct" as evidence, and that President Obama was indoctrinated into Marxism while attending Columbia. Root was specifically referring to the fact that Obama's childhood years spent with his mother in Indonesia. In response to Senator Harry Reid's speculation about Mitt Romney's tax returns, Root offered speculation on Obama's college records.

After being audited by the Internal Revenue Service, Root wrote a column in May 2015 calling the audit "a political conspiracy coordinated by leading Democrats to either destroy me, bankrupt me, or silence me."

Root appeared on The Daily Show program in 2013, where he accused the IRS of profiling him for his political beliefs while he simultaneously spoke in favor of profiling certain racial, ethnic, and religious groups; Root later complained that The Daily Show "literally committed fraud" with selective editing.

Root's theories involving Hillary Clinton include his speculation that Clinton is blackmailing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to avoid prosecution and that Clinton was conspiring with the ACORN organization to steal the 2016 presidential election, even though ACORN no longer existed at that time.

In a Twitter post reacting to the Supreme Court's upholding of Obamacare, Root said he believed that Chief Justice John Roberts is also being "blackmailed or intimidated," which he added is "like John Boehner"

Personal life

Root resides in Henderson, Nevada with his wife Debra. The couple has four children. He is distantly related to advertising pioneer Dave Berg.

Bibliography

• Angry White Male: How the Donald Trump Phenomenon is Changing America - and What We Can All Do to Save the Middle Class. 2017.

See also

• Bob Barr presidential campaign, 2008

External links

• Official website
• Wayne Allyn Root at the Internet Movie Database
• WinningEdge.com official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Interview on Wikinews
• Interview on RawVegas.tv
• YouTube page
• Candidate profile at Project Vote Smart
• Presidential campaign FEC disclosure report
• Interview with the Progressive Student Voice
• World peace think tank supports Root
• Wealth Masters International Senior Economic Advisor & Executive Committee
• Root interview on the American spirit

Party political offices
Preceded by Richard Campagna	Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate 2008	Succeeded by Jim Gray