With the 2024 presidential election 13 months away, CBS News announced on Wednesday that 10 journalists will be added to its political unit, providing reports from the trail and strengthening the news division’s campaign coverage during this election season.
The ten include Olivia Rinaldi, Nidia Cavazos, Jake Rosen, Allison Novelo, Aaron Navarro, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Shawna Mizelle, Taurean Small, Cristina Corujo, and Zak Hudak.
Cavazos, Mizelle, Novelo, Rinaldi, Rosen, and Small join the unit as 2024 campaign reporters, also known as “embeds.” Meanwhile, Montoya-Galvez, Navarro, Hudak, and Corujo see expanded roles within CBS News as they will be key members of its political and newsgathering efforts.
CBS News says its 2024 campaign reporters will report from throughout the country and play a crucial newsgathering role in the election, focusing on the candidates and issues of importance to voters while delivering that reporting across all of CBS News broadcasts, social channels, and platforms, including the daily politics program America Decides on the CBS News Streaming Network.
In announcing these campaign reporters, Mary Hager, CBS News executive editor for politics and Face the Nation executive producer, said, “This team of campaign reporters will be a key part of how CBS News reports from the campaign trail covers yet another consequential election and gets to the heart of the issues that voters care about.” She added, “The enthusiasm and drive of this team of talented journalists is contagious, and their commitment to bringing factual, accurate, and fair reporting to all digital and broadcast platforms of CBS News and Stations is crucial to the success of our America Decides campaign 2024 coverage.”
CBS News political director Fin Gómez said, “We couldn’t be more excited to kick our campaign coverage into high gear with this team. We have here a talented group of journalists with a true passion for covering politics and look forward to seeing them contribute to CBS News’ reporting on the issues that impact our democracy and day-to-day lives of voters.”
CBS News also added that its political and campaign reporting for the first time will also include Spanish-language coverage.
Profiles of the new class of 2024 campaign reporters have been provided below:
Nidia Cavazos was previously a national correspondent for Univision based in Houston, Texas, where she produced, wrote, and delivered daily stories for streaming and linear newscasts. Cavazos covered the 2022 midterm elections, U.S.-Mexico border issues, the Uvalde and Allen mass shootings, extreme weather across the southern states, and conducted exclusive interviews with Texas political candidates. She has previously worked for Univision as a network producer in Miami, a local reporter in Houston, and began her career as a border multimedia journalist for Univision and Fox in McAllen, Texas. Cavazos is the recipient of a national Edward R. Murrow Award and six regional Emmys and is fluent in Spanish, English, and Mandarin.
Shawna Mizelle was most recently a breaking news writer at CNN covering politics for CNN.com. She was previously an associate producer with CNN Politics responsible for managing social accounts, cutting key on-air moments for CNN’s social channels, and reporting and pitching political stories for CNN.com. Mizelle began her career at CNN as a Newsource intern. She also worked as a freelance digital content producer at WHUR 96.3, producing virtual streaming shows and conducting interviews with celebrity guests.
Allison Novelo was most recently a general assignment reporter with the Chicago Sun-Times, covering daily breaking news and reporting enterprise stories on politics, crime, health, the courts, and other key issues affecting Illinois. Novelo covered Gov. J.B. Pritzker as well as the Illinois state comptroller’s and treasurer’s offices during the 2022 midterms, highlighting candidates’ unique backgrounds and approaches to the state’s financial recovery. She also covered state politics in Colorado and Virginia for USA Today. She was an investigative producer for Hearst Television based in Washington, D.C. Furthermore, Novelo served in the Illinois National Guard, which brought her to the U.S. Capitol following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack.
Olivia Rinaldi was most recently an associate producer for the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell based in Washington, D.C., where she worked directly with O’Donnell for three years on the broadcast as well as on 60 Minutes, CBS News Sunday Morning, and other breaking news stories led by O’Donnell. Rinaldi was also a producer for Person to Person with Norah O’Donnell and helped launch the show on the CBS News Streaming Network. In 2021, Rinaldi was part of the team recognized with the prestigious duPont-Columbia Award for the CBS Evening News’ 18-month investigation into the mishandling of sexual assault inside the U.S. military. Rinaldi was previously a broadcast associate for Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.
Jake Rosen has spent the last year-and-a-half as an associate producer for Face the Nation and the CBS News Political Unit, where he has reported on the 2024 GOP primary race, the fallout of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, research projects for the 2022 midterm elections and assisted in weekly anchor and show production. Before joining Face the Nation, Rosen reported on breaking political news from Washington, D.C., with stories ranging from federal court cases to Capitol Hill. He is passionate about reporting on mis- and disinformation, election integrity, A.I., and extremism. Rosen has been with CBS News full-time since 2019 and previously worked as an associate producer for CBS News Radio, assisting with White House coverage, radio production, and editing and producing podcasts.
Taurean Small was previously a Washington correspondent for Spectrum News based out of its Washington, D.C., bureau. Small covered the Wisconsin delegation, current events, and the White House beat as a rotating national politics reporter in this role. Small also produced a six-part series on pivot counties in six Midwestern and mid-Atlantic states, covered the 2022 Wisconsin Senate race, reported on-air for Spectrum News’ network special following President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, and covered the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Previously, Small was a political reporter and multimedia journalist for ABC 57 News in South Bend, Ind., covering then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg and then-Governor Mike Pence’s bid for vice president in 2016. He began his career as a content producer for WTTW, Chicago’s PBS station.