By Stacy M. Brown
Symone Sanders, Vice President Kamala Harris’ chief spokesperson and senior advisor, plans to leave the administration later this month.
“I’m so grateful to the VP for her vote of confidence from the very beginning and the opportunity to see what can be unburdened by what has been,” Sanders wrote in a letter to Vice President Harris’ staff.
“I’m grateful for Tina [Flournoy] and her leadership and confidence as well,” Sanders continued.
“Every day, I arrived at the White House complex knowing our work made a tangible difference for Americans. I am immensely grateful and will miss working for her and with all of you.”
In November, Ashley Etienne, who served as Vice President Harris’ communications director, also stepped down. Prominent news reports suggested major issues between the White House and Vice President Harris’ staff, but officials have dismissed such claims.
The daughter of Omaha Star Publisher Terri Sanders, Symone Sanders earned acclaim as “a champion for women.”
A seasoned political strategist, Sanders gained national prominence in 2016 as the National Press Secretary for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ then-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.
Sanders also worked as the principal of the 360 Group LLC, providing strategic communications guidance to organizations, businesses, individuals, campaigns and candidates and helps clients find sound solutions to tough political and social problems.
According to her biography, Sanders counts as “a communicator with a passion for juvenile justice,” and served as the former chair of the Coalition of Juvenile Justice Emerging Leaders Committee and former member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice.
She worked diligently to raise the profile of young voices in the fight for juvenile justice reform and bring millennial perspectives to policy conversations.
Sanders, 31, once worked as a political commentator for CNN and served in 2018 and 2019 as a resident fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School and the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future respectively.
“Symone has been working at the highest levels and in an extraordinarily intense environment for three years for Joe Biden and now Vice President Harris,” Anita Dunn, a former top aide to President Joe Biden, said in a televised interview this week.
“When you look at the three years, two on the campaign, one in the White House, nobody can question her decision that she needs a break and it’s time to move on. And she’ll always be a member of the Biden-Harris family,” Dunn asserted.
