Oren Shur
Partner and Head of Political
SKDK
About Oren Shur
Oren Shur, a partner at SKDK, helps lead the political department. For the past 20 years, he has served as a media consultant, campaign manager and communications strategist on some of the most competitive Democratic campaigns and independent expenditures across the country.
Oren is the ad maker and media strategist for numerous Democratic elected officials, including Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore and Kansas’ Gov. Laura Kelly. Moore’s 2022 win was historic, as he is Maryland’s first Black governor and just the third in U.S. history. In 2022, Gov. Kelly was the only Democrat to win a governor’s race in a state carried by Donald Trump in 2020.
Oren also produces ads for leading advocacy organizations, including Climate Power, The League of Conservation Voters, Future Forward, Protect Our Care, and Demand Justice.
In 2020, Oren served as an adviser to the Biden campaign’s paid media team. In 2016, he was the director of paid media on Hillary Clinton’s campaign, where he directed the campaign’s advertising program, overseeing the creative development and placement for all television, radio, direct mail, digital, and newspaper ads in the primary and general elections.
Before joining SKDK, Oren spent over a decade on the campaign trail, holding positions including director of independent expenditures for the Democratic Governors Association, where he oversaw paid media programs in 11 states that totaled nearly $50 million; campaign manager and spokesman for Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon; campaign manager to New Mexico Lt. Gov. Diane Denish; communications director to. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and spokesman on Cardin’s competitive 2006 senate campaign.
Oren began his career as a campaign aide to legendary former Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD) and still proudly considers himself a “BAM’er.”
Oren graduated summa cum laude from The George Washington University, where he currently teaches a course in campaign communications. A Maryland native, Oren lives in Takoma Park with his wife and their twin boys.