Ben Jealous

In 2023, Jealous was hired to serve as executive director of the Sierra Club. In July 2025, Jealous was placed on leave by the organization following criticisms of layoffs during his tenure, allegations of conflicts of interest with several hiring choices and being accused by state chapters of failing to develop a strategy to “fight the Trump administration’s dismantling of decades of hard-won environmental protections” following President Donald Trump’s reelection in November 2024. ^{3 4}

Activist Career

Early Career

Jealous entered political activism while attending Columbia University as an organizer in Harlem with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (now the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund). He was suspended from the university for organizing student protests and left to work as a reporter for the Jackson Advocate in Mississippi. ⁵

From 1999 to 2002, Jealous was executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. In July 2002 he left to direct Amnesty International’s U.S. Human Rights Program until June 2005, when he departed to become president of the left-of-center Rosenberg Foundation in San Francisco, California. ⁶

NAACP

Also see NAACP (Nonprofit)

In 2008, Jealous was hired to lead the NAACP at age 35 as the organization’s youngest-ever president and CEO. ⁵ Over the five years he led the organization it reportedly grew its base of online activists and donors. The organization focused on left-wing social-policy issues, including opposing state voter ID laws and New York City’s stop-and-frisk policing policy while supporting same-sex marriage and passage of President Barack Obama‘s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The NAACP also registered some 374,000 voters and mobilized 1.2 million new voters to the polls. ¹

Later Career

In 2013 Jealous left the NAACP to become a partner at Kapor Capital, an Oakland, California-based capital investment firm that invests in companies led by women, transgender people, or “an underrepresented person of color.”⁷ Kapor Capital was founded in 1999 by Mitchell Kapor, a tech entrepreneur, creator of the open source web browser Firefox, and major Democratic Party donor. ⁸ Jealous stayed with the firm until 2019.

From 2016 to 2018 he taught “social entrepreneurship” as a Princeton University visiting professor. He became a visiting scholar teaching “social innovation and leadership” for the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication in January 2020. ⁶

People for the American Way (PFAW)

Also see People for the American Way (Nonprofit)

In June 2020, Jealous was hired as president of People for the American Way (PFAW) and its 501(c)(3) arm, People for the American Way Foundation until 2022. ¹

The Sierra Club

Also see The Sierra Club (Nonprofit)

In 2023, was hired to serve as the executive director of The Sierra Club. Following his hiring, the environmentalist organization saw a series of layoffs for the purpose of “creating new positions, eliminating some old positions and re-imagining others,” ⁹ due to a $40 million funding shortfall that was the result of, according to a spokesperson, “significant fundraising uncertainty due to overall economic trends.” ⁹ Jealous claimed it was part of a “50-state strategy” for state and national-level staff which would be “critical” for the organization. ⁹

In June 2024, leaders of the Oregon and Missouri state chapters for the organization voted unanimously for a vote of no confidence with Jealous, claiming “We can no longer trust Mr. Jealous and his executive team’s management of the Sierra Club and demand they all resign to institute new leadership.” ⁴ Jealous had also been criticized for fundraising efforts as well as being accused of conflicts of interest for hiring a registered lobbyist for the cryptocurrency firm Crypto.com. That same month, a group of 100 employees wrote and signed a letter to the Sierra Club’s board of directors claiming that Jealous “failed to articulate any concrete strategy or theory of change for how we will effectively fight the Trump administration’s dismantling of decades of hard-won environmental protections.” ⁴ In July 2025, Jealous was placed on leave, with Loren Blackford being appointed as interim executive director of the Sierra Club. ⁴

2018 Maryland Gubernatorial Campaign

Jealous announced his candidacy for the 2018 Maryland Governor’s race on May 31, 2017, seeking to unseat incumbent Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who was seeking reelection. ¹⁰ Jealous won the Democratic Party primary against 7 opponents, garnering 40.9 percent of the primary vote (231,895 votes). Hogan was unopposed in the Republican Party primary. ²

Jealous’s running mate was Susan Turnbull, a left-of-center political activist and former chair of the Maryland Democratic Party and vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). ¹¹

Jealous was endorsed by a host of Democratic Party politicians, including President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden; U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin (MD), Elizabeth Warren (MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Bernie Sanders (VT), Kamala Harris (CA), and Cory Booker (NJ); and Maryland Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Sarbanes. ^{12 13} He also received endorsements from a host of left-wing groups, including 350.org, the Communication Workers of America (CWA), Justice Democrats, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the Maryland Working Families Party. ^{14 15}

Jealous’ campaign included promises of college tuition benefits for illegal immigrants, government-paid college tuition, a Medicare-for-All state-government-run health care system, a state minimum wage of $15 per hour, and legalization of marijuana. ¹⁶

Ultimately Jealous lost to Hogan by 273,005 votes, a margin of 11.9 percent. ² The day after the race, the left-of-center website The Intercept blamed his loss on poor fundraising, noting that his platform was “one of the most left-wing policy platforms in the country” yet claiming most Marylanders agreed on his major points. ¹⁷

Policy and Candidate Endorsements

2016 Presidential Race

In 2016, Jealous endorsed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the Democratic Primary in his campaign against Hillary Clinton. ¹⁸

Election Administration

Jealous has voices opposition to state voter integrity bills requiring ID to vote, limiting early voting and absentee voting, and restricting voting by mail in future elections. ¹⁹

Jealous supported passage of the For the People Act (H.R. 1) in 2021, a far-left proposal by Congressional Democrats to federalize elections, curb First Amendment free speech rights in election campaigns, and restrict state voter integrity laws. ²⁰

Comments on Dark Money

Jealous has been outspoken about the influence of money in politics, calling it the biggest challenge facing the United States and voicing support for an amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision. ²¹²² Jealous is an avid proponent of Congressional Democrats’ elections bill, known as H.R. 1, which Jealous said “will help end voter suppression, get big money out of politics, crackdown on corruption, and stop the cycle of disenfranchisement and disempowerment of the people that has gone on for far too long.” ²³