David Bender's four-decade career as a political activist began at the tender age of twelve when he took a "leave of absence" from the seventh grade to become a full-time volunteer in the presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He was present on June 4, 1968 when Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel shortly after claiming victory in the California primary.

Four years later, as a high school reporter, Bender covered the presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon, George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey. He was literally a "boy on the bus," traveling in the company of such journalistic greats as Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid and David Broder.

Subsequently, Bender became an aide to the legendary liberal activist Allard K. Lowenstein, the former New York congressman who was also a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement and later in the anti-Vietnam War movement.

In the early eighties, David Bender was one of the first field organizers for the Human Rights Campaign Fund (now HRC), the national political action committee of the gay and lesbian community. Later, he served on the board of GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

David Bender has also been deeply involved in both the television and music industries, serving first as a senior executive in the production company of musician Stephen Stills and later, as vice president of Tom and Roseanne Arnold’s television production unit. After Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, Bender was asked to become the Democratic National Committee’s liaison to the entertainment industry.
When the late John Kennedy launched George magazine in 1995, he chose David Bender as its first West Coast contributing editor. Citing Bender's more than thirty years of experience in politics, government and entertainment, Kennedy said, "As long as I've known David Bender, he has been involved in public issues. I think what he's been able to do, rather uniquely, is kind of meld a lot of different worlds and channel them into public issues, whether it be Washington, New York or Los Angeles - particularly within the entertainment industry. I can't really think of anyone who has done it longer or as well as he."

In 2003, David Bender returned to politics as a senior advisor in the presidential campaign of Vermont Governor Howard Dean before joining Air America Radio as its political director during the 2004 election.

David Bender is also the author or co-author of four books, including "Stand and Be Counted," a chronicle of artist activism in the music industry, written with musician David Crosby.