Candy Alt Crowley (born December 26, 1948) is an American
news anchor
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
who was employed as
CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
's chief
political
Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
correspondent, specializing in American national and state elections. She was based in CNN's
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
bureau and was the anchor of its Sunday morning talk show ''
State of the Union with Candy Crowley''. She has covered elections for over two decades.
Early life and education
Crowley was born in
Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...
, Michigan, where her family had moved briefly from
St. Louis, Missouri. Her family moved back to St. Louis when she was a toddler and she grew up in the St. Louis County suburb of
Creve Coeur, Missouri. She attended kindergarten through high school at
The Principia School, a private school for children of
Christian Scientists in St. Louis County, where she graduated in 1966. After high school she attended
Randolph-Macon Woman's College in
Lynchburg,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, where she graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
degree in
English.
Career
Crowley started her career as a newsroom assistant with the
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
–based radio station
WASH-FM. She was an
anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ', which itself comes from the Greek ().
Anch ...
for
Mutual Broadcasting and the White House correspondent for the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
.
She moved from
NBC to
CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
in 1987.
She hosted ''Inside Politics'' in place of
Judy Woodruff
Judy Carline Woodruff (born November 20, 1946) is an American broadcast journalist who has worked in local, network, cable, and public television news since 1970. She was the anchor and managing editor of the ''PBS NewsHour'' through the end of 20 ...
before the show was replaced with ''
The Situation Room''. In February 2010, Crowley succeeded
John King as an anchor of the Sunday morning political talk show ''
State of the Union
The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a Joint session of the United States Congress, joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning ...
''.
Crowley has been characterized by the ''Los Angeles Times'' as a "straight shooter", her career as "sophisticated political observation, graceful writing, and determined fairness," and her style as "no-nonsense". The ''L.A. Times'' article says that because of this criticism of her reporting is equally distributed between the Democratic and Republican parties.
Crowley has won several awards, including the Broadcasters' Award from the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
, the 2003 and 1998 Dirksen Awards from the
National Press Foundation, the 1997 and 2005 Joan Shorenstein Barone Award, a 2003
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
for her work on CNN Presents Enemy Within, the 2004
Gracie Allen Award for her war coverage, a National Headliner and a Cine award, the 2005
Edward R. Murrow Award, and the 2012 William Allen White Foundation National Citation from the school of journalism at the University of Kansas for her expertise on "politics, politicians, and the events that have changed the world."
Crowley served as the moderator October 16, 2012, for the
second presidential election debate between President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
and his
Republican opponent
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...
.
She received criticism for her contradicting Romney and seemingly confirming Obama's statement during an exchange with Romney over the language the President used regarding the
attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. CNN noted that "conservative critics have launched an attack Crowley"...but "Crowley was right." Crowley later stated that Romney "was right in the main, I just think that he picked the wrong word."
On March 17, 2013, following their CNN report on the guilty verdict of two
Steubenville high school football players for the
rape of an unconscious sixteen-year-old, Crowley and fellow journalist
Poppy Harlow were criticized for giving too much coverage to how the verdict would affect the defendants' lives.
CNN announced on December 5, 2014, Crowley's decision to leave the network after 27 years. CNN Worldwide President
Jeff Zucker said Crowley "has made the decision to move on, so she can embark on the next chapter of her already prolific career. As difficult as it is for us to imagine
CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
without Candy, we know that she comes to this decision thoughtfully, and she has our full support." Her last broadcast was on ''State of the Union'' on December 21, 2014.
On August 17, 2015, Politico reported that CNN correspondent
Dana Bash would replace Crowley as chief political correspondent.
In fall 2015, Crowley became a fellow at the
Harvard Institute of Politics.
Personal life
Crowley is a
vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...
and practices
Transcendental Meditation.
She is divorced, and has two children, two stepchildren and four grandchildren. Her elder child is a neurosurgeon and her younger son a musician.
References
External links
*
*
*
Candy Crowley Q & A
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowley, Candy Alt
1948 births
American broadcast news analysts
American political commentators
American television reporters and correspondents
CNN people
Living people
People from Kalamazoo, Michigan
People from St. Louis County, Missouri
Principia College alumni
Randolph College alumni
American women television journalists
People associated with the 2012 United States presidential election