Steve Phillips

Senior Fellow

Steve Phillips is a senior fellow at American Progress. He is the founder of Democracy in Color, an organization focused on race, politics, and the new American majority, and author of the New York Times and Washington Post best-selling book Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority.

Phillips is a national political leader, civil rights lawyer, and senior fellow at American Progress. In 1992, he became the youngest person ever elected to public office in San Francisco and went on to serve as president of the San Francisco Board of Education. He is co-founder of PowerPAC+, a social justice organization dedicated to building a multiracial political coalition. PowerPAC+ conducted the largest independent voter mobilization effort backing former President Barack Obama, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). In 2014, Phillips co-authored the first-ever audit of Democratic Party spending and was named one of “America’s Top 50 Influencers” by Campaigns & Elections magazine. In 2016, Democracy in Color organized the first-ever panel on women of color in politics at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). In January 2017, Democracy in Color hosted the only DNC chair candidates forum focused on race and diversity.

Phillips has appeared on multiple national radio and television networks, including NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and TV One. He is a columnist for The Nation and a regular opinion contributor to The New York Times. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Hastings College of the Law.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.