It’s the end of an era at CNN as journalist Candy Crowley, a longstanding political reporter, is leaving the company after 27 years. She was CNN’s chief political correspondent.

Crowley, 65, was the host of CNN’s Sunday morning talk show ‘State of the Union’, a political magazine show that rounds up the week’s most significant news, and puts politicians, senators, Cabinet members and the like under the media spotlight through candid interviews.

Barack Obama Candy Crowley
Candy Crowley covered Barack Obama's (above) campaigns

President of CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker circulated a memo to staff stating “I wanted to let you know that Candy has let us know that she has made the decision to move on, so she can embark on the next chapter of her already prolific career. As difficult as it is for us to imagine CNN without Candy, we know that she comes to this decision thoughtfully, and she has our full support.”

In 2010, Crowley took over from John King as ‘State of the Union’s presenter. While the show was not quite as popular as other networks’ equivalents, the most watched being CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’, the show was a credible and long-standing presence in a crowded Sunday news schedule. The talkshow is expected to continue at the same timeslot, but Crowley’s successor has not yet been named.

Crowley began her career in Washington as a newsroom assistant at Metromedia radio station WASH-FM. She was an anchor for Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and was also a White House correspondent for the Associated Press.

She then arrived at CNN, now owned by Time-Warner, in 1987. She covered a number of presidential election campaigns, including Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and both George Bushes. Days before he left office in 2008, Crowley was granted an extended sit-down interview with George W. Bush.

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