MS NOW announced Wednesday that Shawna Thomas, who ended her five-year stint as executive producer of “CBS Mornings” last month, will join the network as its political director.
Thomas will oversee the network’s political unit and manage its coverage of campaigns and elections ahead of the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential races. She’ll also appear across MS NOW’s platforms, including its linear network.
She begins June 8. Politico first reported the news.
Thomas said in a statement that she was excited to “help inform an audience that craves context and meaning, along with the political machinations of the moment.”
“It’s no secret that I’ve missed Washington, D.C., and this is a homecoming of sorts,” she said.
Thomas’ hire reunites her with some of MS NOW’s talent from their shared time at its former sister network NBC News, where Thomas worked as a producer on the White House and Capitol Hill beats and as a senior producer and senior digital editor for “Meet the Press.” The network hired Peter Alexander away from NBC News, and it promoted Luke Russert to co-host of “The Weeknight” as part of a programming overhaul — two journalists Thomas said she produced for.
Thomas is a veteran of Vice News, where she served as its Washington bureau chief, and served as a content development executive at the short-lived streaming platform Quibi.
“Bringing Shawna on board strengthens our ability to position MS NOW at the center of the 2028 election, which is expected to be one of the most competitive in recent history,” Washington bureau chief Sudeep Reddy said in a statement. “Given the scale, reach, and impact of our audience, we are well-positioned to play a leading role, with the road to the midterms and the White House running through MS NOW.”
The network has spent the last year establishing and fleshing out its independent newsgathering arm since Versant’s split from Comcast, cleaving the cable network from NBC News. MS NOW has hired dozens of journalists while striking partnerships with organizations such as the Marshall Project and the U.K.’s Sky News.
