Cenk Uygur

Cenk Kadir Uygur (; ; born March 21, 1970) is a Turkish-American political commentator and media host. He 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, Uygur worked briefly as an associate attorney in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Uygur 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 2011 to August 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. Uygur's candidacy was considered to be controversial due to his past remarks about women and due to his 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, receiving 6% and 7% of the vote, respectively. Uygur has announced his candidacy in the 2024 Democratic presidential primaries. While he is eligible to run, he is not eligible to serve because he is not a natural-born U.S. citizen. Uygur disputes the legality of this constitutional requirement; he claims the Fifth Amendment case of Schneider v. Rusk as precedent for an Article II requirement.