Glenn Beck headlining Arlington Heights think tank's annual benefit dinner
Political commentator Glenn Beck will headline an Arlington Heights-based free-market think tank's annual benefit dinner in October.
Beck - conservative radio host, author and co-founder of the multiplatform Blaze Media - will appear Oct. 4, at the Heartland Institute's 35th anniversary event with the theme of "Stopping Socialism."
Heartland spokesman Jim Lakely said there will be room for about 500 guests for the event at Cotillion Banquets in Palatine.
Beck's appearance springs from his relationship with Justin Haskins, Heartland's editorial director and research fellow. Beck first noticed Haskins' work for Heartland in 2018, Lakely said, and Haskins has been a guest on Beck's BlazeTV show.
Known for his previous stints as a talk-show host on CNN and Fox News, Beck watched Haskins' give a presentation earlier this year on the dangers of socialism during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, D.C., Lakely said.
"Glenn is very interested in stopping socialism, too, so it's a perfect match," Lakely said Tuesday. "We were happy to have that relationship with him already established and to see if he was free on Oct. 4. And he was, so that's great."
As part of the evening, Beck is to receive the Heartland Liberty Prize that'll recognize his work advancing liberty and free markets. Previous winners of the award, which Lakely said isn't presented every year, include Fox Business Network's John Stossel and Cato Institute co-founder Edward Crane.
Lakely said the evening also will have a tribute to Lee Walker, who was a Heartland Institute senior fellow, chairman of the Illinois State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and director of the Black United Fund of Illinois and the Gidwitz Center for Urban Policy at National Louis University. Walker, 80, died in November.
Nonprofit Heartland performs research as part of its mission to discover, develop and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. To obtain tickets for the benefit dinner, visit heartland.org and click Beck's image on the homepage.