Kirsten Powers

CNN Senior Political Analyst

Kirsten Powers is a CNN Senior Political analyst and author.
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Kirsten Powers
Kirsten Powers
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Latest

Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, speaks during an Amazon Labor Union rally in the Staten Island borough of New York on Sunday, April 24, 2022.
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Opinion: Bernie Sanders is right about capitalism
Feb 24, 2023
Many Americans are essentially indentured servants to an overclass that continues to amass wealth and power, while failing to pass on their largesse to their employees, writes Kirsten Powers.
Close up young adolescent child girl holding hands of caring mommy, sharing life problems in sincere trustful conversation. Loving mother giving psychological support to stressed teenage daughter.
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Opinion: I’ll never be ‘best friends’ with my mother, and that’s finally OK
May 7, 2022
When women feel rejected and unloved by their mothers it is a deep, gnawing, existential pain – sometimes dubbed the ‘mother wound’ – and I’ve found out the hard way that there are very few people you can talk to about it, writes Kirsten Powers.
MANILA, PHILIPPINES - JANUARY 16: Pope Francis waves to thousands of followers as he arrives at the Manila Cathedral on January 16, 2015 in Manila, Philippines. Pope Francis will visit venues across Leyte and Manila during his visit to the Philippines from January 15 - 19. The visit is expected to attract crowds in the millions as Filipino Catholics flock to catch a glimpse of the leader of the Catholic Church in the Philippines for the first time since 1995. The Pope will begin the tour in Manila, then travelling to Tacloban to visit areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan before returning to Manila to hold a mass at Rizal Park. The Philippines is the only Catholic majority nation in Asia with around 90 percent of the population professing the faith. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)
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Opinion: The Pope puts a crack in the Catholic Church’s ‘stained glass ceiling’
Apr 1, 2022
Kirsten Powers writes last week Pope Francis announced reforms allowing women to head some Vatican offices – an incremental, but important step. Now he needs to make a more significant one, by ordaining women to be bishops, priests and deacons.
US President Joe Biden speaks at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 11, 2022. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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Biden must tread carefully amid mounting criticism on Ukraine
Mar 12, 2022
It’s imperative that Biden acts cautiously to avoid escalating the conflict – even if that means facing criticism here at home, writes Kirsten Powers.
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022.
Andrew Harnik/AP
Joe Biden is not failing or flailing
Jan 21, 2022
President Biden’s first year in office had its shortcomings, but CNN’s senior political analyst Kirsten Powers writes that Biden’s presidency is not failing or flailing.
CHARLESTON, SC - NOVEMBER 03: People vote at James Island Charter High School on Election Day on November 3, 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina. After a record-breaking early voting turnout, Americans head to the polls on the last day to cast their vote for incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
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The one thing you’ll need to survive this election season
Nov 1, 2021
As we head into the mid-term election season with so much hanging in the balance, grace just might be what helps you, and even our country, survive, writes Kirsten Powers. Grace is an empowering inner orientation that helps you see others in all their humanity—people who are doing the best they can with the tools they have. Just like you.
Kate Bowler
Courtesy of Kate Bowler
Cancer survivor blows the whistle on ‘toxic positivity’
Sep 30, 2021
At the age of 35, Kate Bowler was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. Doctors predicted that at best she had two years to live – essentially handing the Duke Divinity School professor a death sentence. Since then, she’s been on the receiving end of a maddening collection of cringey cliches presumably meant to encourage her, but which have only made her already terrifying situation more difficult, writes Kirsten Powers.

About

Kirsten Powers is a CNN senior political analyst and NYT bestselling author whose forthcoming book is “Saving Grace: Speak Your Truth, Stay Centered and Learn to Coexist with People Who Drive You Nuts,” publishing on Nov. 2, 2021.

Kirsten formerly was a columnist for USA Today, The Daily Beast, American Prospect Online and the New York Post. The Columbia Journalism Review called her “an outspoken liberal journalist” in a sea of opposition at Fox News, where she previously served as a political analyst.

Her writing has been published in the Washington Post, Elle magazine, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, and Salon.com.

Before her career in journalism, Kirsten was a political appointee in the Clinton Administration and worked in New York Democratic politics. She was also Vice President for International Communications at America Online, Inc. where she oversaw the day-to-day communications of AOL businesses outside the United States and developed and executed the public launches of AOL businesses in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Hong Kong and Australia.

Kirsten graduated from the University of Maryland-College Park with a B.S. in Journalism. She hails from Fairbanks, Alaska and currently resides in Washington, DC