Nationality United States | ||
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Occupation Executive Director, MoveOn.org Political Action Spouse(s) Sara Haghdoosti (m. 2015) Profiles | ||
Ilya sheyman on rebuilding the middle class
Ilya Sheyman (born June 1, 1986) is Executive Director of MoveOn.org Political Action, a community organizer, and former candidate for Illinois's 10th congressional district for the United States House of Representatives elections, 2012.
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Ilya sheyman at bernie sanders vallejo rally
Life and work
Ilya Sheyman was born in the former Soviet Union and immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of four as Jewish refugees. He graduated from McGill University with a joint degree in Political Science and United States History.
In 2012, Sheyman ran for the Democratic nomination for Congress in Illinois's 10th Congressional District, coming in second in a four-way race. As the Chicago Sun Times described, "Sheyman did well—he gained 38.6 percent of the vote to Schneider’s 46.9 percent—demonstrating that there is a substantial progressive base vote in the district."
In his race, Sheyman was endorsed by former Vermont Governor and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, former Senator Russ Feingold, Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Representatives Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison, and Representative Danny Davis. Other notable endorsers included Democracy for America, MoveOn.org, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, the Sierra Club, the Council for a Livable World and Citizen Action/Illinois; AFSCME Council 31, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Sheet Metal Workers Local 73, the United Steelworkers and the International Longshoremen’s Association-AFL-CIO.
Previously, Ilya worked as an organizer for A+ Illinois, a statewide advocacy organization that worked to improve the quality and funding of public schools, for then-Senator Barack Obama as constituent services intern in veterans' and military affairs, as online organizing manager for TrueMajority.org/USAction, as the field director for Democracy for America and as National Mobilization Director for Moveon.org.
In 2013, Sheyman became Executive Director of MoveOn.org Political Action. Under his leadership, MoveOn.org launched a million dollar effort to draft Senator Elizabeth Warren to run for president, endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic Nomination and launched an unsuccessful multimillion-dollar United Against Hate campaign to defeat Donald Trump and Trumpism.
In June 2015, Sheyman married Sara Haghdoosti, who was born in Iran.