Cenk Uygur

Cenk Kadir Uygur (born March 21, 1970) is a Turkish-American left-wing political activist, media host, and attorney. He is the co-creator of The Young Turks, a progressive and a left-wing populist sociopolitical news and commentary program.

Born in Istanbul, Uygur moved from Turkey to the United States in 1978 and, in 1996, worked briefly as an associate attorney. He launched and began hosting The Young Turks in 2002. In 2011, he worked briefly for MSNBC as a political commentator (he was replaced by Al Sharpton), and then from 2011 to 2013, he appeared on a weeknight commentary show on Current TV. In 2017, Uygur co-founded the progressive political action committee Justice Democrats.

In 2020, Uygur was a candidate in the Nonpartisan primary for both the special election as well as the regularly scheduled election for California's 25th congressional district. Some considered his candidacy controversial due to his past comments about women and minority groups, including the LGBTQ+ community, religious Jews, and Muslims, which some found offensive but which he said were taken out of context by the media. He lost both elections, placing fourth overall and second among Democrats after receiving six and seven percent of the vote, respectively.

Uygur announced his candidacy in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries in October 2023 to pressure President Biden to withdraw, despite not being a natural-born U.S. citizen as required, claiming that the courts could overturn the requirement. Uygur suspended his campaign on March 6, 2024.