Manu Raju

Manu Raju
Raju reporting at the Memorial Union Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin
Raju reporting at the Memorial Union Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin
Born Manu K. Raju
(1980-02-09) February 9, 1980
Downers Grove, Illinois
Education Hinsdale South High School, Illinois
Alma mater University of Wisconsin
Occupation Journalist at CNN
Notable credit(s)

The Merriman Smith Memorial Award

Joan Shorenstein Barone Award
Spouse(s) Archana Mehta
Website Manu Raju on Twitter

Manu Raju (born February 9, 1980) is an American journalist and the Senior Congressional Correspondent at CNN, covering the United States Congress and campaign politics. Raju is an experienced Washington, D.C. reporter, having previously reported for Politico as a senior Capitol Hill correspondent and for other D.C. news outlets as well.

Raju has won multiple journalism awards for his reporting on D.C. and his coverage of campaign politics. In 2014, Raju moderated debates in two of the biggest races in the country—for a key Senate seat in Colorado and a hotly contested governor's race there as well. He has regularly interviewed major political figures on national TV, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Sen. John McCain.

Early life and education

Raju grew up in Darien, Illinois, the son of N. K. Raju and Vidya Raju, both doctors who emigrated from Karnataka, India in the 1970s and worked at the National Institutes of Health. His father, Tonse Raju, is a neonatologist and formerly a professor of pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His grandfather Gopalakrishna Adiga,[1] was a legendary poet from South India who wrote in Kannada. Raju attended Hinsdale South High School, graduating in 1998. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, graduating in 2002 with a degree in business administration and having worked as the sports editor for The Badger Herald student newspaper.[2]

Career

Raju first started working on the assignment desk at NBC-15 in Madison, Wisconsin, before moving to Washington, D.C. in 2002. There, he took a job with Inside Washington Publishers, covering environmental policy. He later worked for Congressional Quarterly, The Hill newspaper and Politico, where he reported for seven years before joining CNN in September 2015.[3] Before joining CNN, Raju was a regular guest on many networks and programs, including NBC's Meet the Press and CBS' Face the Nation. When he was hired by CNN, Erik Wemple of The Washington Post called the move a "towering get" for the network.[4]

Raju has developed a reputation for finding out what politicians are discussing behind the scenes,[4] and broke major stories during the 2013 government shutdown and during Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's high-profile reelection race in 2014. In 2016 for CNN, Raju was the network's lead correspondent covering Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign, covered extensively the GOP establishment's struggle with Donald Trump and broke big news in high-profile Senate races, including in New Hampshire.

In 2017, Raju was featured on the cover of India Abroad newspaper, which dubbed him the "King of the Hill" for his reporting on key decision-makers in the United States and on Capitol Hill. "Raju excels at that inside-the-room reporting," a former Politico editor was quoted as saying. The article called Raju "one of the very few Indian American journalists in such a prominent position in the mainstream media."[2]

Raju broke a major news story in January 2017 when he detailed a stock trade that raised ethical and legal questions for Tom Price, President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services nominee.[5] The Trump administration requested a retraction, but fact-checkers found Raju's story to be accurate, and Wemple called Raju's reporting on the story "a model of careful and measured journalism."[6]

Honors and awards

In 2012, Raju was part of a team of four reporters that won the White House Correspondents Association's prestigious Merriman Smith Memorial Award for presidential reporting under deadline pressure for their coverage of the 2011 debt ceiling crisis. In 2015, Raju was awarded first prize by the Society of Professional Journalists in D.C. for beat coverage of the 2014 midterm elections, and a Folio Eddie Award for a feature profile he co-authored on Senator Elizabeth Warren.[3]

In 2015, Washington Life magazine named Raju one of the city's "movers and shakers" under the age of 40.[7] That year, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his high school, Hinsdale South.

In 2017, Raju was honored with the 2016 Joan Shorenstein Barone Award [8] for excellence in Washington-based reporting of Congressional and political affairs for his coverage of Congress and campaign politics. He was given the award at the 2017 Radio and TV Correspondents Association dinner in Washington, where the host, Bobby Bones, credited his "tenacity" and "relentless" coverage. The judges awarded Raju with the prize for his piece detailing how the New Hampshire Senate candidates from both parties struggled to embrace their respective presidential nominees, providing "forward-looking and sharp coverage of the dynamics affecting congressional races around the country" and "skillfully questioning candidates by pushing them to go beyond talking points."

Personal life

Raju and his wife, Archana Mehta, are the parents of twins, a boy and girl, born in 2015.[2]

Raju's brother Sharat is an acclaimed film and TV director.

References

  1. ↑ Gopalakrishna Adiga
  2. 1 2 3 Paul, Shilpi (January 13, 2017). "King of the Hill". India Abroad: 8–13. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  3. 1 2 "CNN Profiles - Manu Raju - Senior Political Reporter". CNN. Retrieved 2017-01-02.
  4. 1 2 Wemple, Erik (2015-08-25). "CNN nabs Politico's Manu Raju for political coverage". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  5. ↑ Reporter, Manu Raju, Senior Political. "First on CNN: Trump's Cabinet pick invested in company, then introduced a bill to help it". CNN. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  6. ↑ Wemple, Erik; Wemple, Erik (2017-01-18). "In retraction request to CNN, Trump team confirms CNN story". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  7. ↑ "The Young and the Guest List 2015". issuu. Retrieved 2017-01-02.
  8. ↑ "RTCA Award Winners".
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