Michelle Caruso-Cabrera (born February 9, 1967) is an American journalist, board member and former politician.[1] She was
CNBC's first Latina anchor at and first Chief International Correspondent regular and is now a CNBC contributor, where she has worked for more than twenty years.
Caruso-Cabrera was born in
Dayton, Ohio and raised in
Nashua, New Hampshire.[2][3] Her mother is a Cuban immigrant[4] and her grandparents were Italian and Cuban immigrants. She graduated from
Nashua High School in 1987.[5] She attended
Wellesley College ('91) in
Massachusetts, paying her tuition in part with the help of a National Merit
Scholarship and her earnings from her first summer job as a waitress at
Pizza Hut. She obtained a bachelor's degree in Economics.[6][7] Prior to graduation, she was elected editor of the college newspaper, and starting in 1991 she worked as a
stringer for The New York Times, reporting for the education section.[8]
Career
Journalism
Univision and WTSP
Caruso-Cabrera was a researcher and later a special projects producer for
Univision from 1991 to 1994. [9][8] She then worked as a reporter for
WTSP in
St. Petersburg, Florida, from 1994 to 1998.[9]
Caruso-Cabrera co-anchored Power Lunch with
Bill Griffeth from 2002 to 2003.[21] She co-hosted the Worldwide Exchange program in 2005-07, along with
Christine Tan in Asia and
Ross Westgate in Europe.[22][23] Caruso-Cabrera was promoted to co-presenter of Power Lunch in 2009, and remained in that position until 2013.[citation needed] She rejoined Power Lunch for another stint as co-presenter in 2016.
She left CNBC in September 2018 to join the board of directors of a
Dallas, Texas, financial firm. Caruso-Cabrera held that position until February 2020.[24][25][26]
Caruso-Cabrera is currently a CNBC contributor.
Book
In 2010, Caruso-Cabrera wrote a book called You Know I'm Right: More Prosperity, Less Government. In it, she called for the elimination of both
Social Security and
Medicare, which she characterized as "pyramid schemes", and expressed numerous other conservative positions.[27] In addition, she proposed creating personal savings accounts saying they would lead people to work longer, and converting Medicare into a corporate-type 401(k) plan.[28]The book has a foreword by CNBC colleague
Larry Kudlow.
In 2020, Caruso-Cabrera tweeted, "I support Medicare and social security-its important to take care fo [sic] the most vulnerable. Medicare for all is taking health insurance away from people who have health insurance that they already like."[29]
Politics
A registered member of the
Republican Party through 2015, Caruso-Cabrera switched and registered as a Democrat in 2016.[30]
Caruso-Cabrera filed official paperwork on February 10, 2020, challenging freshman Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Democratic primary for
New York's 14th congressional district, which covers portions of
the Bronx and
Queens.[31][32][33][34][35] Caruso-Cabrera was endorsed by what Politico called the "traditionally conservative"
United States Chamber of Commerce, a business lobbying group that generally backs Republicans.[36][37][38][39] On April 8, her staff reported that Caruso-Cabrera's campaign had raised $1 million, and it was reported that over four dozen finance industry professionals, including private equity executives and investment bankers, had made early donations to Caruso-Cabrera.[40] In the primary she received 11,337 votes, 18.2% of the vote, finishing in second place.[41]
Caruso-Cabrera ran in the general election on the ticket of the
Serve America Movement, a party with 349 registered members in New York.[42][43] She received 2,000 votes, 0.9% of the vote, finishing in third place.[44][45][46]
She finished 3rd in the 10-person race, making it to the second-to-last round.
Personal life
As of 2007 she was married to Paulo Lima, and lived in
Northern New Jersey.[52] Caruso-Cabrera is now married to second husband Stephen Dizard. The pair married in 2014. After living for several years in
Manhattan, in 2019 she moved with her husband to
Sunnyside, Queens.[53]
Awards
Caruso-Cabrera won an
Emmy Award for a five-part series on children with
AIDS.[54] She received a Broadcast Journalist of the Year (2004) award from the
National Association of Hispanic Journalists.[55] She was named One of the 100 most influential Hispanics" by Hispanic magazine.[56]
Boards and Directorships
She sits on the International Advisory Board of the Instituto Empressa, and serves as President of the Board of Directors of Ballet Hispánico[57] in NYC. She is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations,[58] the Economic Club of NY, and the Latino Corporate Directors Association. In 2023, she joined the board of directors of Wendy’s[59] and Del Real Foods.[60]
Electoral history
2020 New York's 14th congressional district Democratic primary[61]
^"Power Lunch Logo". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved February 11, 2021. Caruso-Cabrera joined the program as Griffeth's original co-presented [sic] from February 4, 2002, to December 5, 2003...