Jim Hightower

National radio commentator, renowned professional speaker, and author of such books as Swim Against the Current, Let’s Stop Beating Around the Bush, and Thieves in High Places, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the “powers that be” on behalf of the “powers that ought to be”—consumers, working families, environmentalists, small business, and just-plain-folks. Author of If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates, Hightower was also twice-elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner and believes that the true political spectrum is not right to left, but top to bottom. He has become a leading national voice for the 80% of the public who no longer find themselves within shouting distance of the Washington and Wall Street powers at the top.

Hailed as “America’s most popular populist,” Hightower not only writes in a factual and hard-hitting manner, but also keeps his Texas humor up front in the traditions of Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and Woody Guthrie. He publishes a monthly political newsletter called The Hightower Lowdown, which was recently named Best National Newsletter at the annual Alternative Press Awards. He also broadcasts daily radio commentaries in 60 markets across the country, writes a weekly newspaper column, and has a monthly column in The Nation. His previous best-selling book was There’s Nothing In the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos.

Hightower Radio has built up a significant national radio presence for left-of-center politics. Hightower uses the airwaves to ravage the right and poke fun at the privileged. Hightower Radio has become the “chat and chew café” of the airwaves—getting people’s attention, getting them involved, and getting them moving. Always connecting issues to the money and power behind what is usually reported in the media, discussing issues in a civilized way, dispensing information, and exhorting listeners to stand up for what’s important to them, Hightower has taken the norm of talk radio to a new level.

Hightower worked his way through college by serving as the assistant general manager of the Denton Chamber of Commerce, and in 1964 he was named management trainee of the US Chamber of Commerce. After graduating with honors from North Texas State University with a degree in Government, he completed a year of graduate study in International Affairs at Columbia University.

Hightower has also accumulated a variety of awards and honors over his lifetime, including the Texas Women’s Political Caucus Good Guy Award, the Silver Medal of the Knesset from the Israeli parliament, and an Honorary Doctorate from Columbia College of Chicago.