On February 11, 2026, at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, RealClear will be celebrating its 25th anniversary year – just as America’s experiment in self-government prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday. Please join us that evening for our third annual Samizdat Prize Gala honoring profiles in free-speech courage.
It’s going to be a great night. We will not disappoint.
Please consider dressing up, overpaying for a ticket, and joining us. And if you cannot come, still consider supporting RealClear and helping us give the recognition due to our outstanding Samizdat Prize winners.
The Samizdat Prize is named after the underground publishing network in the former Soviet Union that carried the works of dissident truth tellers such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Writers who communicated via samizdat risked prison, torture, and even death if they were caught. It is this spirit of courage that we celebrate.
RealClear does not have a rival in the media space. Our Samizdat winners are similarly unique. The principle of free speech captured in RealClear’s viewpoint diversity method, which RealClear has delivered day in and day out for the past 25 years, is the prescription to all that ails our nation. So, too, are our Samizdat Prize honorees. They are “here I stand and can do no other” examples of undeniable and needed courage.
Here are our 2026 winners:
Charlie Kirk: Charlie Kirk’s viewpoint-diversity, you-go-first debate method is the best path forward to work through the divisions roiling our country. As the founder of Turning Point USA, he tirelessly traveled the country, engaging in respectful dialogue with students, debating their ideas on the merits. Tragically, he became a martyr to the free speech cause. Charlie Kirk in death remains a national symbol of First Amendment courage. So is his wife, Erika, who, in the depth of such personal grief, summoned a courage born of love of husband and God, and who calmed, inspired, and united a divided country. Never in my life have I seen such courage born of clarity of purpose and grace. The Samizdat Prize honors Charlie and his legacy that Erika and Turning Point will carry forward.
If Alan Dershowitz is being true to himself and his commitments, there is never a good time to honor him. He goes where his standout talent is not wanted. Dershowitz defends those who have been pre-tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion and canceled from polite society. RealClear honors Alan Dershowitz because of the continuity of his commitment to free speech, particularly when it is difficult to defend. The ACLU lost its free-speech soul long ago. In contrast, Dershowitz has remained Dershowitz. When you offer an award with a name of Russian provenance, you have to start with a brand explanation. But not with Professor Dershowitz. “No need to explain, David. I was in and out of Russia as samizdat’s pro bono lawyer.” Like last year’s Samizdat honoree, Jonathan Turley, Alan Dershowitz is a lawyer and scholar known for his absolutist defense of free speech.
Graham Linehan is not a household name in the United States. Across the pond in the UK and Ireland, he is well known. Once upon a time, he was popularly regarded: a comedy writer whose credits include the BAFTA-award-winning show, Father Ted. What was Graham’s free-speech crime against humanity? He had the temerity to “like” on social media an article that took exception to the unquestioned march of trans ideology. The mob demanded that he bend his knee to its “approved” way of thinking. This past September, he was even arrested at Heathrow Airport for a series of tweets about trans individuals in female-only spaces – showing what can happen in the absence of a First Amendment and why the American people must renew their commitment to our first freedoms.
I believe that “We the People” get the world we praise. Our movies get worse because the Oscars celebrate self-indulgent, anti-American films that cannot fill a theater. And journalism suffers because the Pulitzer and Polk prizes incentivize politically correct, do-not-look-here reporting.
RealClear stands by its daily judgment of the most compelling, dare-not-ignore perspectives from right, left, and center; the accuracy of the RCP Poll Average; and the 2026 Sami Prize winners.
For more information about the Samizdat Prize Gala, including how to purchase tickets and sponsor tables, please click below.
RSVP for the 2026 Samizdat Prize Gala
You can also contact RealClear’s Advancement Coordinator, Frank Filocomo, at frank@realclear.com, with any questions about the event.
