CNN’s Manu Raju is the anchor of "Inside Politics Sunday" and network's chief congressional correspondent. Here’s the path he took from the Chicago suburb of Darien and the Hinsdale South High School class of 1998 to covering Capitol Hill and campaign politics — and the Democratic convention in Chicago.
Born and raised: “I am a native of the western Chicago suburbs and was born in Downers Grove at Good Samaritan Hospital. I grew up and went to elementary school, middle school and high school in nearby Darien.
“My childhood house was conveniently right behind my grade school, Mark DeLay, which I attended from kindergarten to sixth grade. I then went to Eisenhower Junior High for seventh and eigtth grade. And I attended high school at Hinsdale South."
Growing up, interested in Chicago sports teams, not politics: “As a kid, I had scant interest in politics. I was a sophomore in high school during the 1996 Chicago convention and was just getting my driver’s license.
“But as a Chicagoland native, I was a rabid Chicago sports fan — and still am. I remember watching the ‘85 Bears in kindergarten and learning the Super Bowl Shuffle. The ‘84 Cubs were the first sports team I remember watching, and then I fell in love with the playoff-bound ‘89 Cubs. (The Ryne Sandberg jersey I regularly wore as a kid I’ve now given to my 8-year-old son.)
“And of course my bedroom was covered in Michael Jordan posters. I watched pretty much every game that the Bulls of the 1990s played, giving us those six amazing championship runs and helping us forget the heartbreak as a fan of the Cubs, Bears and Hawks.”
Discovered journalism at Madison: “After I graduated high school in 1998, I spent four life-changing years in Madison at the University of Wisconsin. I majored in marketing and got a business degree — but it was there where I grew a passion for journalism.
“In my freshman year, I took up an extracurricular activity — writing for my student paper, the Badger Herald. I covered sports for the Herald through some glorious years, including the Ron Dayne era. As I got more involved at the paper, eventually becoming sports editor and taking some internships including at the NBC affiliate in Madison, I decided I wanted to go into journalism as a career.”
How he got into political coverage: “I sort of fell into covering politics. While I was in college, my dad changed jobs, from working as a neonatalogist at UIC hospital to moving to the DC area and joining the National Institutes of Health. So, I decided after college to move to DC and look for journalism jobs.”
First journalism job in 2002: “I took my first job in Washington as a reporter for a news outlet called Inside Washington Publishers, which includes various newsletters on different areas of policy for a DC insider audience. I wrote about environmental policy for Inside EPA."
Next: “After learning the ropes for two-plus years, I went to Congressional Quarterly to cover energy and environmental issues, giving me new experience in covering the Capitol."
Then: "In 2006, I went to The Hill newspaper where I spent the next couple years covering the Senate and broadening my reporting experience to include politics — including about the rise of then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. And in 2008, I joined Politico as a congressional reporter where I spent the next seven years writing about the huge fights and often chaotic events of Congress during the Obama era."
Now: "By 2015, I made the jump to CNN where a job opened up covering Congress. Over the years, I rose to become the chief congressional correspondent at CNN. And last September, I was given an additional responsibility: as anchor of the show 'Inside Politics Sunday with Manu Raju.' ”
At the Chicago convention: “I’ll be doing a lot of reporting on the ground and interviews both for our daily coverage and for 'Inside Politics Sunday.' And I’ll be a panelist on air analyzing the day’s events during our news programs.”
