Dana Bash

Dana Ruth Bash (née Schwartz; born June 15, 1971) is an American journalist, news anchor, host of Inside Politics and co-anchor of State of the Union on CNN.

Bash was born Dana Ruth Schwartz in Manhattan into a Jewish family, to Frances (née Weinman) Schwartz, an author and educator in Jewish studies, and Stuart Schwartz, an ABC News producer who served as the senior broadcast producer for Good Morning America. Bash's maternal grandmother, Teri Vidor Weinman, and her family were Hungarian Jews. Weinman escaped to the U.S. with her husband in October 1941, but her parents and sister were murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp after the occupation of Hungary in 1944.

Bash grew up living in Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. Bash attended Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, New Jersey. She graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in political communications from George Washington University. While at college, she interned at NBC, CBS, and CNN. On May 12, 2018, Bash received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire.

After college, Bash joined CNN as a producer of their weekend programs such as Late Edition, Evans & Novak, and Inside Politics (later occasionally filling in for regular host John King). Later, she began producing programming specializing in coverage of the United States Senate where she would eventually become CNN's Chief Congressional Correspondent.

Bash was one of the women honored at Elle magazine's 2014 "Women in Washington Power List" event.

Bash was host of the 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate where Kamala Harris was noted for making her "that little girl was me" statement to Joe Biden.

In 2021, Bash joined Jake Tapper to become co-host of CNN's Sunday morning show State of The Union.

In April 2023, CNN announced that Bash would succeed John King as solo anchor of Inside Politics.

In 2024 she co-moderated a Republican Primary Debate in Iowa alongside Jake Tapper between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis

From 1998 to 2007, Bash was married to Jeremy Bash, who would become CIA chief of staff and Department of Defense chief of staff under President Barack Obama. In 2008, she married fellow CNN correspondent John King. Bash gave birth to a son in 2011; she and King divorced in 2012.

In 2011, she resigned as a trustee of Jewish Women International under pressure over its abortion-rights advocacy. A number of conservative blogs had highlighted the group's position on abortion after Bash accepted the trustee position.