Brandon Harami
November 11, 2021 (medium.com)
The San Francisco Berniecrats were early supporters of Buttar, and as Chair I spoke at numerous events in his favor. During the primary, we made the largest investment in election support in our organization’s history to help ensure Bernie won San Francisco and that Shahid broke through a crowded primary so he could face off Pelosi in the general election. Our members, alongside DSA, were the backbone of his campaign and I personally helped him find staff for his race after he repeatedly asked me to be his campaign manager.
In short: we were 100% behind Shahid to the point we were dedicating the bulk of our club resources into getting him elected even when Bernie was also on the same ballot. And although Shahid Buttar had spent $1.6 million from donors across the country, and had a dedicated group of volunteers he only received 13% of the vote in an election Bernie won. Additionally, our endorsed candidates performed extremely well in that primary.
Although the results were not what we had hoped for, Shahid moved into the general election against Pelosi thanks to California’s top two system. While Shahid and many of his national supporters saw this as a win, Pelosi’s strong performance sent many of us a clear message: Shahid’s campaign could not defeat her with its current strategy and we either had to abandon our efforts or find a new strategy for victory. At this time many of us were told staff and Shahid were reconvening to discuss next steps and I had faith my friends would find a solution.
How It Started:
Fast forward through a global pandemic, Bernie ending his campaign, and a horrid national fistfight against diet fascist Trump. It’s the summer of 2020 and folks are figuring out how to campaign with an extremely contagious virus impacting millions. I had already seen Shahid lose a bunch of his staff, was feeling depressed and overwhelmed, and was working to ensure the club had a strong performance in the general election (spoiler alert: we killed it). During this time, I received a call from one of Shahid’s former staffers informing me that someone is coming forward to accuse Shahid of sexual assault and that the staff would also come forward to share their experiences on his team. Mind, I heard it from multiple staffers that Shahid was a pretty bad boss for some time but bit my tongue because I had worked on campaigns before and know how stressful it is and because the staffers asked me not to say anything.
Anyways, I was shocked to hear about this accusation and committed to take it seriously, but declined signing onto a DSA resolution to repeal Shahid’s endorsement because I felt it was pre-emptive and Shahid and Elizabeth both deserved time to make their case. A few days after this conversation the accusations both came out.
Now folks were quick to politicize this issue because, hey, it’s politics. While corporate democrats made this a wedge issue and demanded answers from us, many progressives quickly moved to condemn Shahid and unendorse him. The Executive Board of the San Francisco Berniecrats quickly met, but decided to take time to review and scrutinize the details of the claims and hear from Shahid before making a decision. I called Shahid after this decision and he expressed his appreciation for a chance to be heard out and gave us contacts who could help provide more of his perspective.
One of our Eboard members and myself spoke to some of Shahid’s contacts, and we also reached out to Shahid’s staff (some who were club members) and heard from them. We invited Shahid and his staff to come speak to us as an Executive Board in private. After hearing from both sides, reviewing the claims, and discussing all we heard, the Executive Board made a few decisions:
- We unanimously agreed that the sexual assault accusations against Shahid were questionable and we were not the appropriate body to make a decision on them.
- We voted by a slim majority to recommend rescinding Shahid’s endorsement on the basis that he operated a toxic work environment. I motioned for this recommendation as I made my decision that evening to trust the 7 staffers who quit.
We also decided to move this issue to a final discussion and vote at our upcoming meeting, where we invite Shahid and his staff and whoever they liked to have as witnesses to share their perspective and create space for written testimony. You can see the agenda break down here.
We provided 24 hours for our members to vote, and the result was a majority of members voted to revoke the endorsement but it wasn’t the 60% that our bylaws required. This essentially opened a whole new can of worms for the officers as we were officially on record endorsing a candidate the majority of our members didn’t want to endorse. Several officers resigned at this time, causing the situation to be more stressful and showing just how much this situation was impacting our club. We met again to discuss next steps, and a fellow Eboard member and prominent Shahid supporter motioned that we have another vote to downgrade Shahid’s endorsement to a “recommendation”.
The vote overwhelmingly passedand we got back to the business of winning elections, and 70% of our endorsed candidates won in November while Pelosi overwhelmingly won re-election.
How Its Going:
I had no intention of having a public fight with Buttar after this huge, dramatic, and stressful affair. I had hoped that he would take some time to reflect on what happened and maybe we could find ways to bridge this. But of course, things escalated and he and his supporters began targeting his former staff and the Berniecrats and because I am very online I weighed in on Twitter and eventually (after he spent time attack me and my club on left wing media) I agreed to speak with the Intercept where I made my feelings clear:
But that doesn’t mean Harami is happy with how it all unfolded. “All this sucks. I hate it,” said Harami, who was part of a 2018 effort to get the state Democratic Party to repeal its endorsement of Pelosi. “I’m also wondering if it’s really the hill that the left needs to die on?”
From what I have heard, this struck a nerve with Buttar and he began targeting me in particular and creating a false account of what happened. He and his supporters have made claims that our actions were rooted in white supremacy, and that we helped spread false information that he committed sexual assault, despite us being very clear that we were only holding him accountable for his behavior towards staff. At no point did I, or the club, uphold the accusation made by Elizabeth Croyden, and it is extremely disappointing to see him and his supporters make this claim.
I also want to acknowledge that several members of his staff that came forward were also Southeast Asian immigrants. Erasing their identity in order to push a “white supremacy” narrative is very troubling.
But I think the most troubling actions I have seen from Shahid have been his hyper focus on the LGBTQ community as an adversary. Shortly after the vote to downgrade Shahid’s endorsement, a group of far-right San Franciscans (yes they exist) began targeting me personally at home, work, and online through various forms of harassment. A major ringleader of this effort is a far-right editor of the Marina Times; a conservative newspaper that spreads misinformation about progressives and a key news source acting against Chesa Boudin.
This harassment got to the point that the Marina Time twice spread false information that I was supportive of pedophilia, which is an extremely homophobic attack used against gay men like me for decades. These attacks were unfounded and based on poorly photoshopped versions of my profile, and have been condemned by numerous LGBTQ+ orgs and Politicians.
Shahid called them “poetic justice”.
Now mind, I was very upset to see Shahid dismiss very painful and homophobic remarks. I understand he is speaking out of anger and pain, and not out of hate for the LGBTQ+ community, but it was a breaking point in my patience with him but it also shows just how much he was willing to die on this hill.
And it was just the start of things.
A few months later, Shahid dropped a very very cringe video where he discusses Dave Chappelle’s thoughts on the LGBTQ community. Now, I can appreciate a nuanced discussion on this issue and of the privilege of our community versus others; unlike most other marginalized communities, we are made up of people of ALL races, class, genders, etc etc etc and therefore our privilege is a spectrum. For example: as a white gay man in San Francisco I absolutely have more privilege than other people outside the LGBTQ+ community, but as I shared above it doesn’t mean I don’t get targeted.
What was deeply troubling about Shahid’s remarks is that he decided to lump together the entire LGBTQ+ community in San Francisco as punching down on him. This made me cringe, as Shahid had made some comments about the LGBTQ+ community that made me uncomfortable, including claiming queer identity despite being a self proclaimed cis straight male and making unbecoming remarks about the late Harry Britt, and iconic LGBTQ+ elected and democratic socialist who carried Harvey Milk’s legacy. He also continues to take credit for winning marriage equality in a way that makes it seem like we should be grateful, but it was our community’s victory in Hollingsworth v. Perry that legalized same-sex marriage. It is not Shahid’s place to take credit for our movement’s win.
But wait, there’s more!
I was made aware that Shahid has taken an interview with the woman who spread homophobic misinformation about me, despite him being fully aware of why this is a problem with her. He is so willing to continue to die on this hill that he is now lending his voice to a platform that is hell-bent on defeating socialism and recalling Chesa Boudin, our progressive district attorney who has been focused on ending mass incarceration.
Once again, I don’t think Shahid hates the LGBTQ+ community and do think he is speaking out of pain, but this pattern of behavior is extremely troubling. He recently announced he raised enough money to run again next year, which means many folks across the country are still providing him financial support.
Let me be clear: your money is better spent on a candidate who has a chance of winning, who respects the LGBTQ+ community, and who doesn’t spread misinformation in an attempt to get vengeance. Shahid is actively working with right-wingers to attack our movement in San Francisco and could help undermine our progressive District Attorney.
And like I said before: is this really the hill that the left needs to die on?
Brandon Harami
@SFBerniecrats Officer • Legislation Committee @Ca_dem • Social Housing Enthusiast • Former Kimberly Ellis, Jane Kim, Tony Kelly staff • He/Him 🏳️🌈🌹
