Jason Kessler

Jason Kessler is a member of the alt-right and the organizer of both the 2017 and 2018 Unite the Right rallies. Kessler received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Virginia in 2009.

He was formerly a supporter of Barack Obama in 2008, working for a Democratic polling organization. He participated in the Charlottesville, Virginia branch of Occupy Wall Street in 2011, where he was regarded as violent and contrary to the Occupy ethos.

In 2013, Kessler claims to have been "red-pilled" "when a PR executive was publicly excoriated for a tasteless Twitter joke about AIDS in Africa." By 2016, Kessler started creating awful literature, Badland Blues, about "a homeless dwarf madly in unrequited love with a local waitress, Marissa." This was at about the same time that he became a Trump supporter. In 2016, he was accused of promoting racism at a Charlottesville city council meeting and accused the Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy, an African American, of being a black supremacist. Bellamy's view was that Kessler was taking deliberate offence because he was mad that a black man who was his age had a job and Kessler didn't. Also in 2017, Kessler met Richard Spencer and the conversion to the alt-right became complete.

Kessler has written for VDARE GotNews, and The Daily Caller. Kessler's infamy became so great that The Daily Caller removed him from their website following the first Unite the Right rally.

As of 2018, Kessler is living at his parents' home to save money for the numerous lawsuits brought against him for the violence and death at the first Unite the Right rally. His father supports him as a son, but is totally opposed to his politics.

Crime
Kessler "was convicted in 2005 for shoplifting, obstructing justice and for a string of failures to appear and register, in addition to numerous traffic violations and citations."

In 2017, Kessler pled guilty to "misdemeanor assault after he punched a man while gathering signatures for his petition against Bellamy."