Democratic strategist Kabir Moss dies at 37

Kabir Moss, a kind-hearted, principled, affable, talented rising star in New Jersey politics, died this morning.  He was 37.

Moss has most recently served as the communications director for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor.

“With the death of Kabir Moss, New Jersey has lost what I call a ‘political humanitarian,'” said Baraka. “Kabir worked as the press agent on my campaign for over a year and I spoke to him almost every day  and I knew he believed in the ideas and policies that would do the most to aid the  working class and neediest among us.

“He actually believed a better tommorow was real.and that we had the obligation to transform society not just to use it to gain position and that our position should be used to serve people and not using people to serve us because we had position,” Baraka said.  “He was a rare idealist in a time of cynics ,  when too many people in politics either don’t believe or don’t act on the things they promise.  I will miss him greatly.”

A former college basketball star and Peace Corps volunteer, he came to New Jersey in 2018 to manage a Democratic freeholder race in Monmouth County, and then became deputy communications director for the New Jersey Senate Majority Office.

In Trenton, Moss worked with Senate President Steve Sweeney, Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Senate Health Committee Chairman Joe Vitale, President Pro-Tempore Sandra Cunningham, and Legislative Latino Caucus Chair Nellie Pou.

In early 2021, he founded Moss Media, a public relations and political consulting firm. He worked on campaigns for State Sen. Gordon Johnson (D-Englewood) and Assemblywomen Shaima Haider (D-Tenafly) and Ellen Park (D-Englewood Cliffs).

He played basketball at Africa University in Zimbabwe and Emerson College in Boston.  He spent 3 ½ years in Morocco with the Peace Corps.  He also served as a Senate Page in the Wisconsin State Legislature.