Waleed Shahid

Waleed Shahid (born 1990 or 1991) is a political activist and strategist best known as the communications director and spokesperson for the Justice Democrats, where he held leadership roles on campaigns to elect progressive candidates such as Cori Bush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, and others. He is also a co-writer of the Green New Deal, a proposed economic stimulus program. He is currently the deputy communications director for economic justice in the Mayoralty of Zohran Mamdani.

Early life Waleed Shahid grew up in Arlington, Virginia to immigrant Punjabi Muslim parents from Lahore, Pakistan. His father is a parking garage manager and his mother is a retired special education teaching assistant. After 9/11, his parents advised him to never talk about politics because of concern for his safety. Shahid credits his teenage rebellion with going in the opposite direction. In the same year he also co-founded AllOfUs with Max Berger, Yong Jung Cho, and nine other activists that was "somewhere between a book club and a discussion group," but formulated the theory for a Tea Party of the left. In 2016 he began contributing to The Nation, where he would later join the editorial board.

As the 2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders started, Shahid was working as the political director of the Pennsylvania Working Families Party. Shahid also acted as spokesperson for the Justice Democrats.

Shahid stayed with the organization for six years, until he left to found the Uncommitted movement during the 2024 United States presidential election.

Uncommitted movement

In 2023, Shahid co-founded the Uncommitted movement, a protest campaign with the goal of pressuring the United States government to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza war. He acted as the group's senior advisor.

In late 2024, Shahid became a fellow at the Institute of Politics and Public Service at Georgetown University where he taught an 8-week course titled "Protest to Politics, Grassroots to Governance."

Zohran Mamdani administration

After the election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York City, Shahid served on the transition team on the Community Organizing committee. In 2026, Shahid joined the administration as deputy communications director of economic justice.

"New York City is a city of constant new arrivals and the story of the Irish and Italians in the cities, Jewish tenement workers, people from the Caribbean, Black families from the south. This city is constantly being renewed and it’s always a fight and it is never easy."|Waleed Shahid, in 2026