Lonnie Affrime grew up in a middle-class neighborhood just around the corner from Cherry Hill West High School. He attended public schools, played baseball every year at Lafferty Field, and has never quite understood why people from states like Ohio feel entitled to make fun of New Jersey.

 

Lonnie is also an entrepreneur, author, political wonk, comedian, and nonprofit leader—with over 18 years of experience across business, government, political campaigns, nonprofit work, and grassroots organizing. He graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers–New Brunswick, where he studied politics, economics, and philosophy.

 

After nearly a decade in politics, Lonnie grew disillusioned with the outsized role of money in government. So he pivoted to New Jersey’s legal cannabis industry, opening a dispensary built around simultaneously enjoying life and doing good in the community.

 

In 2015, as a creative outlet for his frustrations, he began performing stand-up and making political satire videos under the name Leo Ashe. Around the same time, he founded the On The Record Institute, a nonpartisan investigative watchdog, and co-founded the Democratic Policy Center. Before that, Lonnie taught high school through Teach For America and served as a Bernie Sanders NJ delegate in 2016.