Weijia Jiang
American television journalist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Weijia Jiang (Chinese: 姜伟嘉; pinyin: Jiāng Wěijiā; born June 6, 1983) is an American television journalist and reporter.[1] She is based in Washington, D.C., and has served since 2018 as the Senior White House Correspondent for CBS News.[2] Jiang has also served since 2026 as the president of the White House Correspondents' Association.
- News reporter
- television journalist
Weijia Jiang | |||||||||||||
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Jiang in 2018 | |||||||||||||
| Born | June 6, 1983 Xiamen, Fujian, China | ||||||||||||
| Education | |||||||||||||
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2006–present | ||||||||||||
| Notable credits | |||||||||||||
| Title | White House Correspondent | ||||||||||||
| Spouse |
Travis Luther Lowe (m. 2018) | ||||||||||||
| Children | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 姜偉嘉 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 姜伟嘉 | ||||||||||||
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In 2020, Jiang's question to President Donald Trump about the COVID-19 testing program in the United States[3] during a White House press briefing[4] received global attention and coverage.[5][6]
Early life
Born in Xiamen, Fujian, China, to Liya Wei and Huade "John" Jiang, Jiang was two when the family immigrated to the United States.[7] She was raised in Buckhannon, West Virginia, where her parents owned and operated a Chinese restaurant.[8] At age 13, Jiang became interested in journalism after encouragement from her eighth-grade teacher, Dianne Williams. Together, they prepared a homemade TV show to submit to a competition run by Channel One, leading to an opportunity for Jiang to intern as a student anchor and reporter in Los Angeles for two weeks. During high school, Jiang worked on the high school video news staff under Julia Conley.[9]
In 2005, Jiang graduated from the College of William & Mary with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a minor in chemistry. She worked on the student-run television station WMTV and credits the university for developing her curiosity.[10] In 2006, Jiang graduated from Syracuse University with master's degree in broadcast journalism.[8][11] In 2012, she was recognized for her contributions in communications as an inductee of Newhouse School of Public Communication's Professional Gallery.[12][13]
Career
From 2006 to 2008, Jiang was a reporter for WBOC-TV in Salisbury, Maryland. From 2008 to 2012, she worked at WJZ-TV, Baltimore. From 2012 to 2015, Jiang worked as a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City, where she covered the Boston Marathon bombings,[14] the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings,[15] and Hurricane Sandy.[16]
In 2013, WBZ-TV, Boston, won a regional Emmy award at the 34th News & Documentary Emmy Awards for the spot news coverage of the Newtown Tragedy[17] which Jiang was involved in reporting.[18] In 2014, Jiang was the Gala Dinner MC for the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Gala Dinner, which featured letters of support from Barack Obama, Andrew Cuomo, and Bill de Blasio.[19]
In 2015, Jiang moved to Washington, D.C., to become a correspondent for Newspath, the 24-hour news gathering service for CBS News. There, she has covered major political stories such as the 2016 United States presidential elections,[20] Barbara Bush's funeral,[21][22] and the congressional baseball shooting,[23] also extensively reporting on both the Obama and Trump administrations. In 2018, after covering President Donald Trump's G-7 Summit[24] and the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy,[25] Jiang became CBS News's White House correspondent.[26] She has traveled with Trump on many occasions, including on Air Force One, and has covered stories including the Helsinki summit between Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin,[27][28] the Mueller Probe, the 2020 United States presidential election,[29] and Trump's first and second impeachments.[2]
Jiang is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association.[30] In 2023, she was elected to an at-large board seat of the White House Correspondents' Association. She has served as the organization's president since 2026.[31] She continued to cover the White House as a senior White House correspondent for CBS News during the Biden administration.[32] She sat next to Trump during the 2026 White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting, and was praised by him for her hosting of the dinner.[33]
Confrontations with President Trump
As a White House Correspondent during the first Trump administration, Jiang had several high-profile clashes with Trump. He once ended a press conference when she pushed back on his refusal to answer a question.[34][35][36]
Memoir
Jiang is writing a memoir, Other, set to be published by One Signal Publishers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.[38][39]
Awards
- RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Award, Feature Reporting, "Gone But Not Forgotten", WBOC-TV, Salisbury, MD[40][41]
- Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters' Association Contest Awards, Outstanding Feature/Human Interest, "Gone But Not Forgotten (Hooper's Island)", (co-winner with Tim Jones)[42]
Personal life
On March 17, 2018, Jiang married Travis Luther Lowe, an executive at Yelp and a donor to Democratic Party candidates and causes,[43] in Palm Springs, California. Civil rights activist Jim Obergefell led the ceremony, which also featured a Chinese tea ceremony. Jiang and Lowe met in college, where they co-hosted a weekly campus television show.[8] In January 2019, she gave birth to their daughter.[44]
