Symone Sanders Townsend & Carlos Curbelo's Biography

Symone Sanders Townsend is an author and seasoned political strategist.

Sanders Townsend rose to prominence in 2016 as the national press secretary for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’s 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.  At 29, she published her first book, No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America and served as a senior advisor for President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign.  At 31, Sanders Townsend was appointed as a senior member of the Biden-Harris administration serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor and Chief Spokesperson to Vice President Kamala Harris.

A communicator with a passion for problem solving and social justice, Sanders Townsend served as the national chair of the Coalition of Juvenile Justice Emerging Leaders Committee and a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice before joining Senator Sanders’s campaign. There, she worked to raise the profile of young voices in the fight for juvenile justice reform and brought millennial perspectives to policy conversations. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris administration, Sanders Townsend was principal of the 360 Group where she helped clients find sound solutions to tough political and social problems. 

Sanders Townsend is a former political commentator for CNN and resident fellow of both Harvard's Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School and the University of Southern California's Center for the Political Future.  

She is a native of North Omaha, Nebraska and currently resides in Washington D.C. with her husband, Shawn.

Symone Sanders Townsend & Carlos Curbelo's Biography

Not yet 40 years of age, Carlos Curbelo has had quite a number of interesting life experiences. He started a media and public relations firm fresh out of college and ran it successfully for over ten years. At the age of 29 he became senior staff for a U.S. Senator and a key advisor on Latin-American policy. Just a year later he was elected to the Miami-Dade County School Board and was part of a historic leadership team that took America’s fourth largest school district from bankruptcy to excellence. During his tenure on the board, Miami-Dade County Public Schools expanded choice, cut administrative costs, and gave teachers raises resulting in the District receiving the prestigious Broad Prize for Education.

In 2014, Carlos was elected to represent his community in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Education and Workforce Committee, the Small Business Committee, and the powerful Committee on Ways and Means where he co-authored the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 - comprehensive tax reform legislation that delivered historic tax relief, drove investment to challenged communities, and made American businesses more competitive. While in Congress Curbelo also led on climate policy, immigration reform, and gun safety. He co-founded and co-chaired the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, served in a leadership role in the Problem Solvers Caucus, and led the Brazil Caucus to strengthen the bilateral relationship with Latin-America's leading economy. In 2017, Curbelo was honored by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation with the New Frontier Award for his work promoting bipartisan cooperation on environmental policy. In 2018 he filed the landmark Market Choice Act, ambitious legislation that would invest nearly a trillion dollars in American infrastructure while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by pricing carbon. Also in 2018, he led a discharge petition initiative that forced the U.S. House to debate and consider comprehensive immigration reform legislation - including a path to citizenship for Dreamers - for the first time in a decade. 

Curbelo has consistently advocated for decency, sobriety, and civility in politics, and more broadly, in American society. Just weeks before leaving Congress he made news for holding a press conference with a young man who threatened his life where he publicly forgave him and announced he would not press charges. He was ranked the fourth most bipartisan Member of the House where he represented South Florida until returning to the private sector in 2019.