Cenk Uygur

Cenk Kadir Uygur (JENK YOO-gər; Turkish: [ˈdʒeɲc kaˈdiɾ ˈujɡuɾ]) is an American progressive political commentator, media host, attorney, journalist, and politician. Uygur is the creator of The Young Turks, an American left-wing, sociopolitical, progressive news and commentary program. Before beginning his career as a political commentator, he worked briefly as an associate attorney in Washington, D.C. and New York City. As a young man, Uygur supported social conservative positions but as his views evolved he began to identify as a progressive. Uygur also co-founded the progressive political action committee Justice Democrats along with Zack Exley, Saikat Chakrabarti, and Kyle Kulinski.In addition to hosting The Young Turks, Uygur appeared on MSNBC as a political commentator. From January to June 2011, he hosted a weeknight commentary show on the network; he was replaced by Al Sharpton. After leaving MSNBC, Uygur secured another weeknight commentary show on Current TV, which aired from December 5, 2011, to August 15, 2013. From 2012 to 2013, he was the chief news officer at Current TV, succeeding Keith Olbermann.In 2020, Uygur was a candidate in both the special election as well as the regularly scheduled election for California's 25th congressional district to succeed former Representative Katie Hill, who resigned in 2019. His candidacy was considered to be controversial due to Uygur’s past comments about women, as well as criticisms of conservative Jewish and Islamic religious garments. Uygur claimed that there was a coordinated campaign against him by the media and political establishments. He ultimately lost both elections, coming in fourth place overall and second amongst Democrats, receiving 6% and 7% of the vote, respectively.