Symone Sanders-Townsend

Symone D. Sanders-Townsend is a strategist, author, and co-host of MSNBC’s The Weekend. She is a former CNN political commentator who rose to prominence during her tenure as the national press secretary for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. At 25, she became the youngest presidential press secretary on record and was named to Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 16 young Americans shaping the 2016 election. At 31, she was appointed as a senior member of the Biden-Harris administration serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor and Chief Spokesperson to Vice President Kamala Harris. This appointment made her the first Black woman to serve as a spokesperson to a Vice President. She joined MSNBC in 2022 to host “SYMONE” and moved to anchor The Weekend in November of 2023.

She was a strategist for Communications and Political Outreach at Priorities USA. She also serves as principal of the 360 Group LLC where she provides strategic communications guidance to organizations, businesses, individuals, campaigns and candidates and helps clients find sound solutions to tough political and social problems.

A communicator with a passion for juvenile justice, Sanders-Townsend is the former chair of the Coalition of Juvenile Justice Emerging Leaders Committee and former member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice, where she worked to raise the profile of young voices in the fight for juvenile justice reform and bring millennial perspectives to policy conversations.

Sanders-Townsend holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from American University. In 2024, she was awarded the Black Enterprise’s Luminary Award at the Women of Power Summit. She has been featured on multiple news network and profiled in national newspapers and magazines. Her book No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America was published in 2020.