Chris Evans Launches A Starting Point Website to Help Americans Get Real Facts to Inform Their Vote
Chris Evans has launched his own website — and it's probably not what fans would expect from the Avengers star.
The actor, 39, founded A Starting Point with business partners Mark Kassen and Joe Kiani, in an effort to present non-partisan, fact-based (and fact-checked) discourse about the biggest political issues and policies that affect and are important to Americans.
Evans says he was motivated to create the website after his own Internet searches for facts behind specific political issues left him confused about which information was reliable. In his frustration, he helped launch A Starting Point to help the American public better understand the issues that matter to them.
"Our goal is to create a chain of connectivity between elected officials and voters to create engagement," he recently told PEOPLE. "To try and just create a little bit more involvement from the public with the political arena."
Evans continued that thought during a discussion with Fast Company Tuesday, about hopefully getting more people to vote in general elections.
"We live in a country of 300 million-plus people, I think roughly only 60 percent of the people voted [in the last election]," he said. "In my opinion, you're going to have a hard time creating a government that accurately reflects who we are as a nation with those types of numbers."
A Starting Point
The website is divided into three sections. First there is "Starting Points," which is a glossary-type section featuring two-minute answers to common questions asked of our elected officials. Next is "Daily Points," which features participating politicians talking for one minute about any subject they want to address. And finally there is "Counterpoints," a section that features a discussion between two elected officials who have differing viewpoints about an issue. Current examples of those discussions are: "How should states balance reopening businesses & preventing an increased spread of COVID?" and "Should mail-in voting be mandated by the federal government?"
The site's co-founder Kassen, a producer and director, explained that what sets A Starting Point (ASP) apart from other outlets and media organizations is that they are focused on one thing only.
"We’re different because we only do one thing. Those platforms are a can of information on a lot of subjects and I think when people go looking for information ... they do have to weed through different subject matter," he said during the Internet chat with Fast Company. "We don’t have that problem. We’re about what we’re about -- engaging people with their elected officials."
A Starting Point
ASP's third co-founder Kiani, a tech entrepreneur, added that they are not looking toward a monetary gain, but to help better inform the voting public.
"I'm not worried about how I'm going to make money on something, but 'Is this something that’s worthy? Is it going to make life better for people?' If I can gather the right team and we think we can make a difference, we go for it," Kiani said. "Fortunately so far that’s worked out. Maybe one day we’ll get handsomely rewarded, maybe not, but the point is what Chris said, we’re trying to get people to get engaged, to vote, so that hopefully our government represents us all a little bit better."
Evans told PEOPLE the way to change that is by voting, plain but not so simple.
"That's such a boring line to a lot of people, but it doesn't mean it's not true," he said. "Given everything that's going on in the world, more engagement in politics is always a good thing. It will only help government work better for us, and better represent who we really are."
