In 2012, Shakir became House Democratic LeaderNancy Pelosi's director of new media.[9] During that time, he was involved in advocacy for Muslim-American communities.[10] After that, he served as a senior adviser to Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.[12] 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."[13] 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, Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta 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 American Civil Liberties Union as its political director in January 2017.[14] In March, he helped the ACLU launch the People Power website, which engages volunteers to mobilize in defence of civil liberties.[11] Shakir had first pitched the idea for such a website to ACLU Director Anthony Romero in 2015; at that time, Romero had dismissed the idea as too radical.[15] 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.[11][16][17]
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.[19][20]
In February 2021, Shakir and Nico Pitney founded More Perfect Union, a nonprofit news and advocacy outlet modeled on ThinkProgress.[21] Shakir describes More Perfect Union, which creates video and graphics to support labor issues, as "ThinkProgress for a digital age."[22]
Personal life
Shakir is married to anti-monopoly advocate Sarah Miller.[23]
^Smith, Ben (November 7, 2021). "Why the Media Loves Labor Now". New York Times. Retrieved November 13, 2021. More Perfect Union, a nonprofit news outlet .. quietly started in February. It is led, in part, by Faiz Shakir, the former manager of Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, and Nico Pitney, a former top editor at The Huffington Post and NowThisNews.
^Markay, Lachlan (March 11, 2021). "Sanders' campaign chief aiming to push Biden leftward". Axios. Retrieved November 13, 2021. 'This is ThinkProgress for a digital age,' he said, with an emphasis on video and graphics that would be central 'if we were relaunching ThinkProgress in this modern environment.'