Tasnim - Fresh off announcing a new run at the presidency, US Senator Bernie Sanders has named a prominent Muslim civil rights lawyer to lead his effort, in a first for a major presidential bid.

Faiz Shakir, a Harvard University graduate and former national political director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), was named campaign manager on Tuesday by the independent senator, Anadolu Agency reported.

Before the ACLU, Shakir was a senior adviser to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and also advised Nancy Pelosi, the current House majority leader.

During seven years at the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based liberal think tank, he spearheaded an anti-Islamophobia campaign which produced a report, "Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America."

Sanders, a strong spoiler ahead of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic nomination for president in 2016, joins a crowded field of hopefuls for the 2020 Democratic nod.

Though an independent, progressive Sanders caucuses with the Democrats.