From newsroom to campaign trail: Media personalities who ran as Democrats

Political reporter Hanna Trudo is considering running for Congress in New Hampshire as a Democrat. If she did take the plunge, it would make her the latest mainstream media figure to seek office on the Democratic ticket.

Here are five other mainstream media figures who campaigned as Democrats for office, or at least made an attempt.

John Avlon

CNN political analyst John Avlon announced last year that he would leave the network to defeat Donald Trump and “his MAGA minions” by running for Congress as a Democrat in New York’s First Congressional District in Long Island. 

“Right now, our democracy is in danger. This election is not a drill,” Avlon warned at the time.

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While he went on to capture the Democratic nomination, he lost the general election to Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., by more than 10 points.

Avlon, the former editor of the liberal Daily Beast, was known for hosting a “Reality Check” segment on CNN that skewed heavily to the left.

Michelle Caruso-Cabrera

Former CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera made an ill-fated Democratic primary challenge in 2020 to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in New York’s 14th Congressional District.

Running as a more moderate candidate who opposed the Green New Deal and universal health care, she was routed by the far-left Ocasio-Cortez in the primary, getting just 18.2 percent of the vote.

Caruso-Cabrera spent more than 20 years with CNBC, serving as the financial network’s chief financial correspondent as well as co-anchor of “Power Lunch.” She also lost her bid for the Democratic nomination for New York comptroller in 2021.

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Ocasio-Cortez upset longtime Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary in 2018 before cruising to victory in the deep-blue district that November. She’s now one of the leaders of the Democratic Party and is even rumored as a 2028 presidential candidate despite being only 35.

Nicholas Kristof

Longtime New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof briefly left the newspaper in 2021 after a 37-year run to run for Oregon governor on the Democratic ticket.

“I am confident we can do better as a state. I do think that’s going to require vision and leadership and sending a different kind of leader to Salem,” he told a local outlet at the time.

Unfortunately for him, his New York ties wound up haunting his candidacy. 

Kristof was deemed ineligible early in 2022 after the state Supreme Court ruled he didn’t meet Oregon’s three-year residency retirement. Kristof had voted in New York in 2020, calling his ability to meet the requirement into question before the Supreme Court’s decision ensured he wouldn’t make the ballot.

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Kristof returned to the Times later in 2022 and has been there ever since.

Matthew Dowd

Former ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd long claimed to be an independent, but the mask came off officially in 2021 when he briefly ran for Texas lieutenant governor as a Democrat.

Dowd, a straight, White, male Christian, wrote in 2018 that straight, White, male Christians should not pursue power in order to make space for minorities.

“I would humbly suggest that we as White male Christians take it upon ourselves to step back and give more people who don’t look like us access to the levers of power,” he wrote, adding, “As a White male Christian in America, I am part of a dwindling subset that has held the levers of power politically and economically in nearly every field for the entire history of the United States.”

Dowd’s run in an attempt to oust Republican Dan Patrick didn’t last long. He dropped out after less than three months, saying enough diverse candidates had emerged on the Democratic side that he should step aside. Democrat Mike Collier ultimately lost the race by 10 points to Patrick.

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Dowd spent 13 years at ABC News as a political analyst before leaving in early 2021, where his “independent” claims were often criticized given his obvious preference for Democrats. Dowd, who served as chief strategist for George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election, left the Republican Party during Bush’s second term over his disillusionment with the GOP.

Dylan Ratigan

Dylan Ratigan, a former CNBC journalist who went on to host an eponymous show for MSNBC, mounted a run for the Democratic nomination in New York’s 21st Congressional District in 2018.

Ratigan didn’t come close, finishing far behind winner Tedra Cobb, who went on to lose the general election to Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.

Of course, going from a journalism background to a political campaign isn’t solely the domain of Democrats. 

Republican Kari Lake, who now serves in the Trump administration, was a news anchor in Phoenix before making unsuccessful runs in Arizona for governor and U.S. Senate in 2022 and 2024.