Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire and popular conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has earned second place in Campus Reform’s 2017 Higher Ed Heroes awards.

Shapiro, founder of one of the most popular conservative websites in the country and host of The Ben Shapiro Show, one of the nation’s top podcasts, is known for his fiery style of argumentation and verbal takedowns of liberal college students.

[RELATED: Prof tells class he won’t debate Shapiro, suggests MMA fight instead]

He’s become one of the biggest fish in the conservative pond, partly by speaking on controversial topics across the country’s college campuses, where he is highly popular among conservative students, but despised by their liberal peers.

In one instance, the University of California, Berkeley had to fork over about $600,000 for security due to concerns that Shapiro’s presence on campus would lead to violent protests, even though the protests turned out to be peaceful.

As a result of his personal experiences speaking on college campuses, Shapiro was invited to testify before the House Oversight Committee, which asked him to “identify harms of infringing on the right to free speech on college campuses” and provide “recommendations on how to encourage and protect First Amendment rights.”

[RELATED: Student gov pulls Shapiro funding after students complain]

During his remarks, Shapiro explained that the current campus culture not only destroys “free speech,” but “just as importantly it turns students into snowflakes, craven and pathetic, looking for an excuse so they can earn points in the intersectionality Olympics, and then use those points as a club with which to beat opponents,” saying no views should ever “be banned on the grounds that they offend someone.”

Stay tuned as Campus Reform announces the first place prize in its Higher Ed Heroes competition.

Follow Campus Reform on Twitter: @CampusReform