Briahna Joy Gray (born August 15, 1985) is an American political commentator, lawyer, and political consultant who served as the National Press Secretary for the

Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign The 2020 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders was an election campaign from the junior United States senator and former representative from Vermont. It began with Sanders's formal announcement on February 19, 2019. The announcement followe ...

. Gray is a contributing editor for ''Current Affairs'', and was a senior politics editor for ''

The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...

''. She hosts her own podcast, ''Bad Faith'', and co-hosts The Hill's web series '' Rising''.

Early life and education

Both of her parents were teachers. During her childhood, Gray lived in North Carolina, Kenya, and Saudi Arabia. Gray earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

Career

After graduating from law school, Gray worked as a corporate litigator in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for Dewey Pegno & Kramarsky LLP and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. She was also the host of ''Someone’s Wrong on the Internet,'' a podcast that covers politics and pop culture. Gray was hired by ''

'' in 2018, and has also written columns for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'', ''Current Affairs'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', and ''New York Magazine''. Gray supported

Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign In the 2016 presidential campaign, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders sought the Democratic Party's nomination in a field of six major candidates and was the runner up with 46% of the pledged delegates behind former Secretary of State Hillary C ...

and joined his 2020 campaign as his National Press Secretary. Gray has stated that she voted for

Jill Stein Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and former political candidate. She was the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections and the Green-Rainbow Party's candidat ...

in the 2016 presidential election. In 2020, Gray was included in ''Fortune'' magazine's '

40 Under 40 ''Fortune'' magazine's 40 Under 40 is a list of individuals the publication considers to be the most influential young leaders for the year. The list has existed in two phases: First, from 1999 to 2003, the list was presented purely as a numeric ...

' listing under the "Government and Politics" category. On April 13, 2020, after

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

dropped out of the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary, Gray stated on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that she did not endorse the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. In response, Bernie Sanders distanced himself from her saying that "She is my former press secretary — not on the payroll." Sanders also stated that it would be "irresponsible" not to vote for Biden. Since Sanders' 2020 Democratic primary campaign ended, Gray returned to her role as contributing editor at ''Current Affairs'' in addition to co-hosting the ''Bad Faith'' podcast with former ''

Chapo Trap House ''Chapo Trap House'' is an American left-wing political podcast founded in March 2016 and hosted by Will Menaker, Matt Christman and Felix Biederman with Amber A'Lee Frost as a recurring co-host. The show is produced by Chris Wade and formerly by ...

'' co-host Virgil Texas.

References

External links

*
Bad Faith podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Briana Living people 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers African-American journalists African-American lawyers African-American women in politics African-American women journalists African-American women lawyers American podcasters American political activists American women in politics American women podcasters Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign Harvard Law School alumni Harvard University alumni Left-wing politics in the United States 1985 births