Anat Shenker-Osorio is a left-of-center political strategist and messaging consultant who advises Democratic and left-of-center issue campaigns on narrative framing and voter persuasion. Through her firm ASO Communications, she conducts research on issues including immigration, energy, and criminal justice policy. As of 2025, Shenker-Osorio hosted the podcast Words to Win By, which analyzes international left-wing campaigns, and has authored messaging guides like Fascism and the English Language to promote the use of alarmist phrases in place of traditional terms of speech as a weapon against the alleged authoritarianism of the second Trump administration. She is reportedly a close friend of Democratic operative and labor union activist Michael Podhorzer. ^{1 2 3}

Background and Activities

Shenker-Osorio founded ASO Communications as a for-profit public relations firm focused on liberal political communications, drawing from her experience working on campaigns for ballot initiatives, candidates, and advocacy groups in the U.S. and internationally. She has presented her research to entities including the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations. Her 2012 book, Don’t Buy It: The Trouble with Talking Nonsense About the Economy, proposes reframing arguments about the economy, which she states conservatives often win. ^{4 5}

Shenker-Osorio’s firm, ASO Communications, focuses on messaging, running randomized controlled trials and focus groups to test message efficacy, such as reframing immigration around family unity rather than border security or highlighting the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025, which became a target of Democrats during the 2024 election. ^{6 7}

She hosts Words to Win By, a podcast produced by Wonder Media Network, featuring episodes on progressive campaigns and victories in the U.S. and abroad, including Brazil’s election of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ireland’s abortion ballot measure, and U.S. democratic election victories. ^{6 1 8}

In early 2025, Shenker-Osorio released Fascism and the English Language, a messaging guide urging so-called precise terminology such as “fascist power grab” to describe the “hostile takeover” of the government following President Donald Trump’s second election in 2024. In the piece, she promotes the use of alarmist phrases in place of traditional terms of speech. A conversation she hosted with Michael Podhorzer about the book was summarized by Podhorzer as follows: “I talked with my dear friend and colleague Anat Shenker-Osorio about her new messaging guide, Fascism and the English Language, and why it’s both morally and strategically important to call a spade a spade when we’re facing a hostile takeover of our government by a fascist regime.” ^{3 9 2}

Race-Class Narrative

Much of Shenker-Osorio’s work as a communications consultant focuses on what she describes as the “race-class narrative,” a series of communications approaches that pair traditional left-wing economic populist messages with appeals to racial consciousness and solidarity. ¹⁰

The approach, as explained by Shenker-Osorio, connects themes of racial consciousness to traditional economic issues to draw middle- and lower-class white “persuadable voters” into political alliance with traditionally Democratic racial minority groups. The theory of the race-class narrative is that “centering race” in terms of economic justice “improves the efficacy of economic populism, and reduces support for opposition views.” ¹⁰

Shenker-Osario has also claimed that right-of-center emphasis on individualism relies on “right-wing tropes about ‘handouts’ and lack of work ethic” which can be countered by “calling out attacks on Black and brown communities.” ¹⁰

The race-class narrative project is based on focus group testing, both nationally and in states such as Indiana and Minnesota. In a 2018 op-ed in The Guardian, Shenker-Osorio and co-authors Ian Haney Lopez and Tamara Draut argued that Democrats did not need to choose between minority and white middle-class voters but could approach racial and economic topics in a way that bridges the supposed divide between the groups. The key, the authors wrote, was to “make explicit how racism oppresses people of color while serving as a weapon for a greedy few to keep the rest of us from uniting.” In doing so, liberal political advocates could unite middle- and working-class whites with left-wing minority voters. ¹¹

Shenker-Osorio led the project in conjunction with a group of Democratic-aligned advocacy groups that includes polling firm Lake Research Partners and the liberal political advocacy group Demos. ¹⁰

2020 Presidential Election

In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, Shenker-Osorio assisted Michael Podhorzer, a senior advisor to the president of the AFL-CIO, with “red-teaming” various potential outcomes to the election. In the lead-up to the election, Podhorzer began working with left-wing interest groups to make voting in the 2020 presidential election easier in order to encourage turnout against then-President Trump. TIME magazine reported in February 2021 that Podhorzer began working with groups, including Planned Parenthood, Greenpeace, and MoveOn, to pursue political and legal strategies that would tilt the election towards Democrats. ¹²

1. “Home.” Words to Win By (Podcast). Accessed November 20, 2025. https://wordstowinby-pod.com/
2. “Bringing a Survey to a Gun Fight.” Contrarian (Substack). Accessed November 20, 2025. https://contrarian.substack.com/p/bringing-a-survey-to-a-gun-fight
3. “Fascism and the English Language.” Contrarian (Substack). Accessed November 20, 2025. https://contrarian.substack.com/p/fascism-and-the-english-language
4. “Words to Win By.” Words to Win By Pod. Accessed November 25, 2025. https://wordstowinby-pod.com/
5. “The ASO Team.” ASO Communications. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://asocommunications.com/team/
6. “Our Approach.” ASO Communications. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://asocommunications.com/
7. “Guide to Messaging Our Freedoms.” We Make the Future. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://www.wemakethefuture.us/resources-docs/messaging-our-freedoms
8. Words to Win By.” Spotify. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://open.spotify.com/show/0P2Dd95OoicBC46v4FYrXv
9. “Anat Shenker-Osorio: Actual Plan.” The Ink. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://the.ink/p/anat-shenker-osorios-actual-plan
10. “Race-Class: Our Progressive Narrative.” Demos.org. Accessed November 21, 2025. https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Race_Class_Narrative_Handout_C3_June%206.pdf
11. Ian Haney López , Anat Shenker-Osorio and Tamara Draut. “Democrats can win by tackling race and class together. Here’s proof.” The Guardian. April 14, 2018. Accessed November 21, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/14/democrats-race-class-divide-2018-midterms
12. Molly Ball. “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election.” Time. February 4, 2021. Accessed November 21, 2025. https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/