Cenk Kadir Uygur ( ; ; born March 21, 1970) is a Turkish-American progressive political commentator, media host, attorney, journalist, and politician. Uygur is the creator of The Young Turks, an American left-wing, sociopolitical, progressive news and commentary program. Before beginning his career as a political commentator, he worked briefly as an associate attorney in Washington, D.C. and New York City. As a young man, Uygur supported social conservative positions but as his views evolved he began to identify as a progressive. Uygur also co-founded the progressive political action committee Justice Democrats along with Zack Exley, Saikat Chakrabarti, and Kyle Kulinski. In addition to hosting The Young Turks, Uygur appeared on MSNBC as a political commentator. From January to June 2011, he hosted a weeknight commentary show on the network; he was replaced by Al Sharpton. After leaving MSNBC, Uygur secured another weeknight commentary show on Current TV, which aired from December 5, 2011, to August 15, 2013. From 2012 to 2013, he was the chief news officer at Current TV, succeeding Keith Olbermann. In 2020, Uygur was a candidate in both the special election as well as the regularly scheduled election for California's 25th congressional district to succeed former Representative Katie Hill, who resigned in 2019. His campaign was controversial due to Uygur having made numerous derogatory and vulgar comments about women, Jews and Muslims in the past. He lost both elections, coming in fourth place in both contests with 5.9% of the vote in the first race and 6.6% in the other. Early life and education Uygur was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and immigrated with his family to the United States when he was eight years old. He spent the remainder of his upbringing in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and graduated from East Brunswick High School. Uygur was raised in a secular Muslim household, but became more religious during college before becoming agnostic although he still identifies as a cultural Muslim. He graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, where he majored in management, and was on the Student Activities Council representing the Turkish Students Association. While a student he wrote several articles that he has since disavowed, including a denial of the Armenian genocide and disparaging comments about women. He has received a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School. Career After graduating from law school, Uygur worked as an associate attorney