Faiz Shakir (; ) is an American Democratic political advisor. He serves as senior advisor to

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

and executive director of the nonprofit media organization More Perfect Union. Previously, he was campaign manager for

' 2020 presidential campaign, an aide to Congressional leaders

Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi ( ; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who was the List of Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 52nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 2007 to 2011 an ...

and

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2 ...

, an editor-in-chief of the ''

ThinkProgress ''ThinkProgress'' was an American Progressivism in the United States, progressive news website that was active from 2005 to 2019. It was a project of the Center for American Progress#Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for America ...

'' blog, and political director of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

. Raised in Florida by Pakistani immigrants, Shakir is a progressive liberal and an advocate for

Muslim American Islam is the third-largest religion in the United States (1.34%) after Christianity (67%) and Judaism (2.4%). The 2020 United States Religion Census estimates that there are about 4,453,908 Muslim Americans of all ages living in the United St ...

communities.

Early life and education

The son of Pakistani immigrants to the United States, Faiz Shakir was born and raised in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. Shakir completed his B.A. in government at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and played on the

Harvard Crimson baseball The Harvard Crimson baseball team is the varsity College baseball, intercollegiate baseball team of Harvard University, located in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. The program has been a member of the Ivy League since the conference officially bega ...

team for four years. Shakir earned a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

Career

After graduating from law school, Shakir worked as a communications aide in the White House

Office of National Drug Control Policy The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is a component of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. The director of the ONDCP, colloquially known as the drug czar, heads the office. "Drug czar" was a term first used ...

and as a legislative aide to Senator

Bob Graham Daniel Robert Graham (November 9, 1936 – April 16, 2024) was an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 38th List of governors of Florida, governor of Florida from 1979 to 1987 and a United States Senate, United States senat ...

. He also worked on the

John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign The 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry, the longtime U.S. senator from Massachusetts, began when he formed an exploratory committee on December 1, 2002. On September 2, 2003, he formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomina ...

as a junior staffer. In 2005, Shakir began working for the

Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy think tank, research and advocacy organization which presents a Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal viewpoint on Economic policy, economic and social issues. CAP is headquarter ...

as a policy adviser. There, he helped launch the ''

'' blog in 2005, of which he was the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

from 2007 to 2012. In 2012, Shakir became House Democratic Leader

's director of new media. During that time, he was involved in advocacy for Muslim-American communities. After that, he served as a senior adviser to Democratic Senate Leader

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. Reid's former deputy chief of staff commented, "Reid did not make a big decision without consulting Faiz. There's no one he trusted more on how the progressive community would react on something and no one whose advice he took more seriously on pushing him to the left." Shakir informally advised Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, which drew the ire of the Hillary Clinton campaign team. According to the

Podesta emails In March 2016, the personal Gmail account of John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff and chair of Hillary Clinton's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, was compromised in a data breach accomplished via a spear-phishing attack, and some ...

, Clinton's campaign chair

John Podesta John David Podesta Jr. (born January 8, 1949) is an American political consultant who served as Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy from 2024 to 2025, having previously served as the Senior Advisor to the President ...

chided Shakir for advising Sanders. "Gave him a very hard time," Podesta wrote to Neera Tanden about Shakir's involvement. "I have to say this does not go down easy with me." Shakir joined the

as its political director in January 2017. In March, he helped the ACLU launch the People Power website, which engages volunteers to mobilize in defence of civil liberties. Shakir had first pitched the idea for such a website to ACLU Director

Anthony Romero Anthony D. Romero (born July 9, 1965) is an American lawyer who serves as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He assumed the position in 2001 as the first Latino and openly gay man to do so. Early life and education R ...

in 2015; at that time, Romero had dismissed the idea as too radical. The website attracted 225,000 volunteers in eight weeks, coordinating projects such as meetings with judges to film screenings to panels on law enforcement and immigration. Upon joining Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign in February 2019, Shakir became the first Muslim and first

Pakistani-American Pakistani Americans () are citizens of the United States who have full or partial ancestry from Pakistan, or more simply, Pakistanis in America. They can be from different ethnic groups in Pakistan like Punjabis, Punjabi or Muhajir people, Muhaj ...

campaign manager for a major party U.S.

presidential campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referen ...

. He and Roger Lau (who worked for Elizabeth Warren's campaign) share the distinction of being the first Asian Americans to serve as campaign manager for a major American presidential candidate. In February 2021, Shakir and Nico Pitney founded More Perfect Union, a nonprofit news and advocacy outlet modeled on ''ThinkProgress''. Shakir describes More Perfect Union, which creates video and graphics to support

labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

issues, as "ThinkProgress for a digital age." In mid-January 2025, Shakir announced his candidacy for chair of the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the principal executive leadership board of the United States's Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. According to the party charter, it has "general responsibility for the affairs of the ...

(DNC). On February 1, 2025, he lost to DNC Chair race frontrunner Ken Martin.

Personal life

Shakir is married to anti-monopoly advocate Sarah Miller.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakir, Faiz 1979 births American campaign managers American Civil Liberties Union people Muslims from Florida American people of Pakistani descent Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign Florida Democrats Georgetown University Law Center alumni Harvard College alumni Living people People associated with the 2020 United States presidential election Harvard Crimson baseball players Trade unionists