Mark Preston

Mark Preston (born July 21, 1971) is Vice President of Political & Special Events Programming at CNN, and a CNN Senior Political Analyst. His role is to oversee CNN’s election night coverage across its broadcasting and online platforms, organize CNN’s presidential debates and forums, and serve as CNN's main contact with political campaigns at both the state and national level, and to lead the conception and execution of CNN's political events.

Preston also provides political analysis for CNN, CNN International and CNN.com, regularly appearing on CNN's major news analysis shows such as New Day, Erin Burnett OutFront, Anderson Cooper 360°, Cuomo Prime Time and CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, and was promoted to Senior Political Analyst in January 2017. He was formerly CNN's Political Director, a post subsequently taken by David Chalian in 2014.

Early life Preston was born in July 1971 and is the son of Eugene Preston and Mary Preston.

Education Preston was educated at Arlington High School, a public secondary school in the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1990, followed by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied journalism and history. While there, he worked on the Massachusetts Daily Collegian and freelanced for the Associated Press. He also worked in the office of Senator Edward Kennedy.

Life and career Preston started his career as a print journalist. He was a correspondent at States News Services, a wire service in Washington, D.C., and at the Marietta Daily Journal in Marietta, Georgia, during which he won several Georgia Press Association and Georgia Associated Press reporting awards.

Career at CNN Preston joined CNN in 2005 as political editor. He played a key role in the network’s election night coverage in 2006, which won an Emmy Award, and of CNN’s 2008 campaign coverage, which won a Peabody Award. In July 2017, he left the program, which was retitled Politics Inside Out with Chris Frates, while Preston began single-hosting a new political program, Full Stop with Mark Preston.

Personal life Preston married Meredith Ray Bonner on July 8, 2000, while a reporter at the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Atlanta, Georgia, the U.S. state in which they first met as reporters at the Marietta Daily Journal, in the city of Marietta. The couple spent their honeymoon in North Carolina.