If you look at the speaker list for “Freedom Festival 2026,” an event run by the right-wing news outlet Rocky Mountain Voice, the first name listed is Beverly Vance Aikins, best known as the mother of U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance. Having struggled with substance use for several years, Aikins now tours the country, speaking as a recovery advocate, including for some Republican groups.
After Aikins, the list of featured speakers includes a laundry list of national conservative media figures, many of whom have built careers pushing misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Rocky Mountain Voice was launched by former University of Colorado Regent and 2022 gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, a Republican, in 2024. At the time, she pitched the site to wealthy donors as a vehicle to push conservative messaging, with the ultimate goal of taking the state back from Democrats.
Ganahl was seen as the GOP’s best hope in 2022’s gubernatorial race, but was dogged by her refusal to condemn election denialism and her embrace, first reported by the Colorado Times Recorder, of the exaggerated and alarmist claim that Colorado kids were “identifying as cats … all over Colorado, and schools are tolerating it.” Four years later, her news outlet’s Freedom Festival, set to take place at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in June, is taking a nosedive into the deep end of right-wing conspiracism.
A Former Reality TV Star
The event’s “Back the Blue Bash” will feature a keynote speech by onetime reality TV star Dog the Bounty Hunter, whose real name is Duane Chapman. He became a bounty hunter after being released from prison following a 1976 murder conviction. Chapman caused diplomatic tension between the U.S. and Mexico in 2003 after his job as a bounty hunter led him to be arrested after apprehending a convicted rapist in Mexico, where bounty hunting is not legal. The incident propelled his name into the limelight, leading to the launch of his eponymous reality TV series, which ran from 2004 to 2012, with spinoffs in later years.
In 2021, he was sued for breach of contract over his behavior while filming an ultimately canceled TV series. The lawsuit alleges Chapman was fired from the show due to making racist and homophobic comments, and that he “illegally [due to his murder conviction] holstered and wore a taser device” during filming. Chapman denied the allegations.
Chapman is an avid supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, and has previously called Joe Biden “Little Hitler,” accusing him of stealing the 2020 presidential election. He has also said he might like to be a “deportation czar” under Trump.
Media Personalities
Most prominent in the Rocky Mountain Voice’s advertising for the event is conservative influencer Nick Shirley. In 2025, Shirley rocketed to prominence after he released an inflammatory video with exaggerated claims that Minnesota daycares, run by Somali immigrants, were engaged in fraud. A year prior, he was in Denver, pushing exaggerated claims that a Venezuelan gang had taken over the city of Aurora.
He’s not the only conservative media figure who is scheduled to appear at the event.
Also scheduled is conservative journalist Lara Logan. Once a foreign correspondent for CBS, she left after an inaccurate report on the Benghazi attack. Logan has since become well known in conservative media, but was dropped as a guest by Fox News after comparing Anthony Fauci to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Logan has also perpetuated antisemitic conspiracy theories around the Rothschild family, claiming once that the family funded Charles Darwin to create the theory of evolution.
Greg Gutfeld, a late-night host at Fox News, is scheduled for Saturday afternoon. His Fox talk show career has spanned nearly two decades, during which he has come under frequent critique for controversial or offensive statements. Last year, Gutfeld said that American conservatives should start calling themselves Nazis to “remove the power from the n-word by using it.”
Joining them is Lee Habeeb, vice president of content at Salem Media Group, a national broadcasting company, recently sold to a Colorado Springs nonprofit, focused on conservative Christian content. It owns several Colorado stations including 710 KNUS. In the wake of the 2020 election, multiple Salem hosts platformed false claims that Dominion Voting Systems machines were used to steal the election; Salem Media apologized and issued a retraction last year.
Roving Conspiracists
Freedom Festival is set to feature multiple activists who have made their careers pushing different flavors of conspiracy theories. Seth Keshel, a former Army intelligence officer, tours the country pushing unfounded claims of election fraud. In 2023, Keshel gave a presentation alongside then-Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams.
Robert Malone, meanwhile, claims to have invented mRNA vaccines – but while he did work on early mRNA technology, his claim that he’s the sole inventor has been disputed by several scientists who worked with him in the past. He’s since risen to prominence as an anti-vaccine conspiracist, claiming falsely that COVID vaccines cause “a form of AIDS” not related to HIV. Malone was appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to a federal vaccine advisory panel last year, but left his position in March after reported infighting with HHS personnel.
Trump-Linked Activists
Detroit-based pastor Lorenzo Sewell is best known for giving the benediction at Trump’s inaugural address. Shortly after, he announced he was launching his own cryptocurrency coin, $Lorenzo, the proceeds of which he said would pay for his church’s services. Over a year later, the coin is valued at $0.000006613.
Sewell once told Fox News, “We do not believe that every Democrat is a demon, but we do believe that the Democratic platform is demonic” – which leaves open the possibility that he believes some Democrats are, in fact, literal demons.
Also set to appear is Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, a prominent far-right think tank. Roberts and his organizations have been described as chief architects of Project 2025, a blueprint for Republicans to consolidate power following the 2020 election, including deregulating the oil & gas industry and limiting reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights. At the end of last year, experts estimated that the Trump administration had put about 50% of Project 2025 into action.
Another speaker is Mike Davis, a conservative lawyer who has previously worked with Colorado Republicans and runs the Article III Project, a group that aims to fill the judiciary with judges who will carry out conservatives’ will; he once said he was “helping President Trump find the best judicial and Justice Department picks he can find.”
Also appearing is James Lindsay, a right-wing education activist, who published a book claiming that Marxists have infiltrated academia and are brainwashing children to become left-wing activists. He has appeared at multiple local events by Protect Kids Colorado, a group pushing a slate of ballot initiatives targeting transgender people.
Some local activists are set to speak at the event, too – including Erin Lee, the leader of Protect Kids Colorado, and Patti Fox, who the listing describes as an “advocate speaking out on public safety, victims’ rights, and the real-world impact of failed sanctuary policies.”
In case all this wasn’t enough spectacle, the event, which runs from Friday, June 26, through Saturday, June 27, will feature a rodeo and will conclude with a drone show finale.
