[11] During the 1990s, Daou was a producer and keyboardist, appearing on hundreds of remixes and recordings by artists including Björk, Frankie Knuckles, Miles Davis, Mariah Carey, and Diana Ross.
[18] During the 2020 primaries, Daou penned an op-ed for The Nation in which he implored Democrats, progressives, and leftists to move past their 2016 battles over the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, uniting behind a shared goal of defeating Trump.
[20] In March 2020, he explained on The Intercept his support for Sanders and insights gained from past experience working for the Democratic Party's establishment.
[21] In 2019, Daou and his wife, Leela, became advisors to the progressive congressional campaigns of Lindsey Boylan (NY-10), Lauren Ashcraft (NY-12), Rebecca Parson (WA-06), and Melanie D'Arrigo (NY-03).
[27] A few days later in a joint statement with the campaign, he cited his and his wife Leela Daou's obligations to care for their ailing parents.
[29][30] Daou told New Yorker interviewer Isaac Chotiner that "there has been a systemic eradication of all the routes that third parties can take, which is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
"[32] On October 26, 2023, Daou announced via X (formerly Twitter) that he was resigning from West's campaign over "ongoing emotional distress" from the Israel–Hamas war, its effects in Gaza and the Biden administration's response.
[18][34] Daou and James Boyce claimed to have performed a founding role in the Huffington Post and said they were shut out of any profits from its sale to AOL.