Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Zuckerberg Hires Hillary’s Strategist – Will He Run For President

Mark Zuckerberg has retained top Hillary Clinton strategist Joel Benenson as an adviser to his charity, fueling speculation that the Facebook founder and tech billionaire could run for the presidency in 2020.

Benenson’s polling and strategy group will advise the Chan Zuckerberg initiative, Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan’s foundation, on how to advance its mission of fostering human potential and equality.

But while Benenson does corporate and charitable work, he is best known as pollster to Clinton and former President Barack Obama, and the move gives new life to rumors about Zuckerberg’s presidential ambitions.

Zuckerberg’s name has been bandied about as the Silicon Valley titan makes stops in Iowa and plans this year to make a stop in every state of the union. If elected in 2020, he would be the youngest president at 37.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.