Pentagon Names Sabrina Singh Director of Public Affairs Campaign and Usha Sahay Defense Secretary’s Speech Writer
- Singh served as deputy press secretary to Vice President Kamala Harris and Sahay was a senior editor at Politico.
Sabrina Singh, the former deputy press secretary to Vice President Kamala Harris has been named director of integrated public affairs campaigns at the Department of Defense. Also joining is Usha Sahay, previously a senior editor at Politico Magazine, as a speechwriter in the secretary’s office.
Singh was one of Harris’ longest-serving aides and has been her deputy press secretary since the beginning of the administration. She was first hired by Harris in March 2020 to run communications for her political operations. At the time Singh became the first Indian American to assume the role of a press secretary to a U.S. vice-president nominee. She also worked for Harris during the general election and the transition.
The 34-year-old is the granddaughter of Sardar J.J. Singh of the India League of America, who championed the cause of the right to immigration. The long, arduous, nationwide campaign culminated in the then-president Harry Truman signing the Luce-Celler Act on July 2, 1946. The signing of the Act allowed a quota of 100 Indians to immigrate to the United States per annum.
Before her role on the campaign, Singh served as senior spokesperson for former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign and national press secretary for New Jersey Senator Cory Booker’s presidential campaign. She previously served as deputy communications director for the Democratic National Committee, spokesperson for American Bridge’s Trump War Room and regional communications director on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She has also worked at SKDKnickerbocker, serving as communications director for Rep. Jan Schakowsky and has worked at various Democratic committees.
An alumna of the University of Southern California and majored in International Relations, she began her career at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) as a press assistant, which was her first exposure to political campaigns.
Sahay joined Politico in June 2021, as a senior editor, specializing in foreign coverage. Previously, she was editor-at-large at War on the Rocks. Before that, she held the post of managing editor. Sahay has also worked as a home page editor at The Wall Street Journal and was a news editor at The Huffington Post. She has a B.A. from Columbia University, New York, and a master’s from Harvard Kennedy School.