CAMS: Mentoring Meal with Nancy Cordes C’95, Chief White House Correspondent at CBS News

Nancy Cordes is CBS News' chief White House correspondent. Her reporting appears across all broadcasts and platforms, including CBS Evening News, CBS Mornings, CBS Sunday Morning, Face the Nation, and CBS News 24/7. Cordes has won numerous awards for her reporting, including multiple Emmys, Edward R. Murrow awards, and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.

While on the White House beat, Cordes has covered major national and international stories including the war with Iran, President Trump’s introduction of new global tariffs, his summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and DOGE cuts to the federal government. She has covered the diplomatic travels of Presidents Trump and Biden around the world, including Trump’s visit to Persian Gulf countries and his meeting with Chinese President Xi in South Korea; NATO, G7, and G20 summits in Calgary, Madrid, Cornwall, Warsaw, Vilnius, Rome and Brussels; and Biden’s summit with Putin in Geneva in 2021. In 2023, Cordes won an Emmy Award and an American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award for breaking news coverage on the CBS Evening News following the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

In her previous role as CBS News' chief congressional correspondent, Cordes led coverage from Capitol Hill as rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 and as Trump became the first American president in history to be impeached twice. During her 12 years covering Congress, she reported extensively on government shutdowns; COVID-19 relief legislation negotiations; five Supreme Court confirmations; the congressional investigation into Russian election interference; the 2017 tax cut bill; the battle over President Obama's health care law; the rise of the Tea Party; and debates over immigration reform, gun control and many other policy issues.

Cordes has been a major contributor to CBS News' election coverage since 2008. On election nights 2010, 2014, 2018, 2020 and 2022, Cordes was part of the in-studio anchor team and led coverage of House and Senate races. In 2024, she covered President Biden’s reelection bid and, after he dropped out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. In 2016, Cordes was the lead CBS News correspondent covering Hillary Clinton's presidential bid and co-hosted a primary debate in Iowa. She covered President Obama's bid for re-election in 2012.

Cordes joined CBS News in 2007 as Transportation and Consumer Safety correspondent. Previously, Cordes was an ABC News correspondent based in New York, where she reported for all ABC News broadcasts and covered major news stories including Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq and the 2004 election. Before that, she was a Washington-based correspondent for NewsOne, the affiliate news service of ABC News. Cordes was a reporter for WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., where she covered the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon, the 2000 presidential race, the Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks and peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia. She began her career as a reporter for KHNL-TV in Honolulu in 1995.

Cordes was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Hawaii on the islands of Kauai and Oahu. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. Cordes received a master's degree in public policy from Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs.