Shahid embodies San Francisco’s values, and has actively represented them in both San Francisco and Washington as a legal advocate, national non-profit leader, grassroots organizer, and movement musician. Through his work building movements for peace, immigrant rights, black lives, and the Occupy movement, Shahid dedicated his career to public service long before running for public office.

An early advocate for marriage equality for same-sex couples and a prolific organizer in the movement to end warrantless surveillance, Shahid most recently built a national grassroots network for the Electronic Frontier Foundation as the organization’s Director of Grassroots Advocacy. He has been building social movements and speaking truth to power for two decades, and graduated from Stanford Law School in 2003.

In addition to LGBTQ rights, privacy, and the right to encryption, Shahid’s work has advanced immigrant rights, campaign finance reform, government transparency, international human rights, and police accountability. His writing has explored issues from the right-wing attack on reproductive freedom to the erosion of voting rights, and from effective counter-terrorism strategies to counter-cultural activism leveraging art & culture.

Want to learn more about Shahid’s 20-year history of building the progressive movement?

I am running for office because I can’t turn a blind eye to corporate predation marginalizing the future.

San Francisco needs a voice in Washington aligned with our city’s proudly visionary values. My work and my identity each uniquely qualify me to serve in that capacity. I have actively practiced solidarity with communities on the frontline of patriarchy and U.S. imperialism—both abroad and here in the U.S.—for decades.

I’m poised to help the left wing of Congress both by adding a vote to the Progressive Caucus and the ranks of its bolder members of color, and also by adding depth in constitutional law, civil liberties, tech regulation, and foreign policy.

My political philosophy is reflected by the various networks and movements with whom I’ve worked for decades, including the movements for civil liberties, police accountability, climate justice, immigrant rights, and a peaceful and just foreign policy placing human rights before corporate resource extraction.

I'm committed to establishing the recognition of basic human needs—including healthcare, housing and food—as human rights. I'm also committed to defending our democracy, both by challenging executive secrecy and mass surveillance, and also by defending voting rights and judicial independence in the face of their longstanding erosion.