Faiz Shakir Announces Run To Head Democratic Party

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC – Progressive strategist Faiz Shakir, who ran Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign in 2020, has announced a late bid to lead the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Citing a “lack of vision and conviction” within the Democratic agency as the race for chair heats up, the Pakistani American is pitching a remake of the party apparatus that emphasizes the working class. Shakir serves as the executive director of More Perfect Union, a pro-labor journalism platform.

In a memo to DNC members sent on January 15, he explained that he is running to “change how Democrats are perceived by voters” by prioritizing investment in workers and unions, grassroots organizing, and engaging with former Democrats who flipped their votes to President-elect Trump.

 “We can’t continue to defer critical political judgments to a donor class or some other outside actors. To be a multiracial working-class Party, we must prove we are on their side in the fight against corporate greed.”

Shakir is outlining a shake-up of the DNC, which has faced intense criticism following Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss to Donald Trump.

Rejecting the “status-quo style of thinking,” he aadded, “We cannot expect working-class audiences to see us any differently if we are not offering anything new or substantive to attract their support.”

Shakir completed his B.A. in government at Harvard University, where he also played on the Harvard Crimson baseball team for four years. He earned a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University and is married to anti-monopoly advocate Sarah Miller