The event was attended by over 1,000 Patriots and featured over 40 breakout sessions and speakers such as Herman Cain, Dick Morris, John Fund and Jenny Beth Martin. The 2nd We the People Convention was held on June 29-30th, 2012 at the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus and sold 1,100 tickets. The convention is now going into its 8th year.
Shortly after the first We the People Convention, Tom was asked to become, and accepted the position of being, the second President in the History of the Ohio Liberty Council, now the Ohio Liberty Coalition. The OLC is a state-wide organization that coordinates the efforts of Ohio’s 150+ local liberty groups in the pursuit of individual liberty and Constitutionally limited governance. As President, Tom played a role in the passage of State Issue 3 in 2011 which prohibited Ohio from forming an Obamacare State Health Care Exchange.
In the spring of 2013, he became a focal point of the IRS "Targeting" scandal after having told the IRS in 2012, as President of the OLC and Executive Director of the Portage County TEA Party, that his organizations would not comply with their demands for information in exchange for getting tax exempt status. Zawistowski appeared on FoxNews numerous times and was interviewed by nearly every major newspaper, TV network and radio network in the country about the inappropriate actions of the IRS. Through his leadership the OLC was granted it’s tax exempt status in December of 2012. Zawistowski was a lead plaintiff in the two class action law suits against the IRS, both of which were won by the TEA Party. Zawistowski was featured in a documentary movie about these court cases called "Targeting U.S." which was produce by the ACLJ and released in November of 2019.
