How Brianna Keilar Became CNN Senior Political Correspondent Amid Her Family Crises

From a general correspondent to a CNN senior political correspondent, Brianna Kielar has made her mark in the news industry. While she holds an enviable position in her career, it has not always been a smooth sail for her. The beautiful newswoman has braved several storms both professionally and on the personal front. Besides pulling all the stops to report breaking news even in risky situations, she has suffered the loss of a loved one, as well as a divorce. In all of those hard times, Kielar has not allowed anything to interfere with what is fundamental to her; family and career. Find out more about her in this interesting article.

Brianna Keilar’s Career Dynamics

Keilar has come a long way in her career, amid family crises, since she started as an intern somewhere in San Fransisco as a production assistant in 2001. She studied at Viejo High School, graduating in 1998 and earned a dual bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and Psychology in 2001 from the University of California.

Determined to establish her feet in the journalism business, she dedicated her time to learn the business from the ground up. She also interned at KTVU-TV, a CNN and Fox affiliate. From that point, she must have nursed the dream of working for the 24-hour cable news channel, CNN, someday as one of its leading ladies in news reportage. She is currently a senior political correspondent and an anchor for CNN in the Washington DC bureau.

Prior to joining KTVU, she had her first on-air job as a general reporter at KIMA-TV, a CBS affiliate stationed at Yakima, Washington, in 2001. Keilar also worked on the radio station, KFFM as a co-host of Billy, Blue, and Brianna, too: The Morning Zoo. Then, just before she landed her CNN gig, she served as a CBS News anchor, reporter, and producer for MTVU, MTV’S college network.

Additionally, she served as a fill-in anchor on CBS News’ overnight newscast, Up to the Minute, as well as a freelance reporter for CBS Evening News Weekend Edition. At the time she joined CNN in 2006, she had amassed so many skills and led the coverage of numerous important stories.

Rise to the CNN Senior Position

Keilar hasn’t always served as a senior political correspondent on CNN; she worked her way to prominence from a congressional correspondent to a senior White House correspondent.

She joined the giant news network in 2006 as a national correspondent for CNN Newsource in Washington. Then, she served as a general assignment correspondent during which she covered a wide range of stories, including the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. Kielar was reportedly the first CNN reporter to arrive on the scene.

As a Congressional correspondent, Kielar covered the activities of both the U.S. House and Senate, including the $700 billion bank bailout in 2008. She received the 2009 National Press Foundation Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress. In 2011, Brianna Kielar was named a White House correspondent, reporting on the Obama administration. She won the Aldo Beckman Memorial Award for her coverage of the rollout of Obamacare in 2014.

CNN named her to the new role of senior political correspondent in February 2014, to oversee crucial political stories and breaking news in Washington. Brianna Kielar led the coverage of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats during the 2016 presidential election. She took over as anchor of CNN’s 1 p.m. hour, CNN Right Now with Brianna Keilar in November 2018. The news show was launched to replace the political analysis program, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer where Kielar served as a fill-in anchor.

Challenges and Personal Woes

While she made progress in her career, gradually climbing to the top, Kielar suffered the dissolution of her first marriage, just two years after tying the knot. She was married to a movie producer named Dave French from 2009 until 2011. As if that was not enough, 2016 rang in its own version of pain for the beautiful newswoman. That year was quite eventful for Brianna Kielar; grueling campaign coverage, devastating personal loss, and even more.

Kielar was hit by a deep personal loss in 2016; her mother, Mariam, sadly passed away. She found out that her mom had become sick just 24 hours before her demise. Coincidentally, it happened when she was in Kentucky for the State’s primary election. Her mother suffered and died from acute leukemia, on 17th May 2016.

On a brighter side, she marked several celebrations that same year. She got engaged on the 4th of July to Fernando Lujan, a director on the National Security Council in the White House, four years after they first met at a ‘post-work happy hour’. The duo tied the knots two days before 2017 rang in, in a Las Vegas art gallery. Kielar and Lujan welcomed their first child, a boy named Antonio Allen Martinez Lujan in June 2018.

Through all the dramas that went down in her life, Brianna Keilar has braved every storm that came her way and has continued to make tremendous progress in her career. In 2019, the military spouse began writing a column titled Home Front.