Hispanic Surge: Democrats Path to Victory, Election 2012

Ron Brownstein

Ron Brownstein, a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of presidential campaigns, is National Journal Group's editorial director, in charge of long-term editorial strategy. He also writes a weekly column and regularly contributes other pieces for both National Journal and The Atlantic, and coordinates political coverage and activities across publications produced by Atlantic Media. Mr. Brownstein also writes for 2012 Decoded.

Prior to joining Atlantic Media, Brownstein was the national affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He has also served as the Times' national political correspondent and the author of the weekly Washington Outlook column. Brownstein is a National Journal alumnus, having served as the magazine's White House and national politics correspondent from 1983-1986, and then as its west coast correspondent through 1989. He appears regularly on national television, including NBC, ABC, CBS, and MSNBC, and served as a political analyst for CNN from 1998 through 2004. His sixth and most recent book, The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America, was published by Penguin in November 2007.

Mr. Brownstein was twice named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, receiving that recognition for his coverage of both the 1996 and 2004 presidential campaigns. In addition, he is the recipient of several journalism awards, including the Exceptional Merit in Media award from the National Women's Political Caucus, the Excellence in Media award from the National Council on Public Polls in 2005, and the Journalist of the Year award from the Los Angeles Press Club in 2005. In 2007, the American Political Science Association presented him its Carey McWilliams award for lifetime achievement, granted to honor a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics.

Julian Castro

Julian Castro is an American politician and the current Mayor of San Antonio, Texas. Castro served on the San Antonio City Council for four years before becoming mayor. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School.

Janet Murguia

Janet Murguia has devoted her career in public service to opening the door to that dream to millions of American families. Now, as a key figure among the next generation of leaders in the Latino community, she continues this mission as President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.

María Elena Salinas

Univision Network Anchor María Elena Salinas is the most recognized Hispanic female journalist in the United States. Named by The New York Times as "the voice of Hispanic America," for three decades, Salinas has informed millions of Hispanics in the United States, along with 18 countries in Latin America. As co-anchor of the highly-rated evening newscast "Noticiero Univision" and news magazine "Aqui y Ahora" (Here and Now), she has handled some of the most challenging assignments in modern-day journalism.

Salinas' work has earned her several journalistic awards including three national Emmy Awards and one regional. She was also part of the Univision news team that received the Edward R. Murrow Award for the network's coverage of the Atlanta Olympic Park bombings. Salinas has interviewed every U.S. President since Jimmy Carter and has been face to face with dozens of Latin American heads of state, rebel leaders, and dictators. In 2007, Salinas made history by co-hosting both the first ever Democratic and Republican candidate presidential forums in Spanish on the Univision Network.

Her influence reaches beyond television. Salinas is a radio analyst on Latino issues and is one of few Hispanic syndicated columnists in the United States, where her column is published in both Spanish and English, as well as on Univision.com and her own website MariaESalinas.com. In 2006, she published her memoir entitled "I Am My Father's Daughter: Living A Life Without Secrets," which received critical acclaim and made the best-seller lists for Spanish-language books on several occasions.

Salinas is also the official spokesperson for "Ya es Hora" (It's Time), a national citizenship and civic engagement campaign, that received the coveted Peabody Award for helping motivate Hispanics to participate in the American political dialogue. In 2000, Salinas launched a scholarship in her name to be awarded to a Hispanic journalism student interested in pursuing a career in Spanish language media. She is one of the founding members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and sits on the board of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and the International Women's Media Foundation.

Salinas began her journalistic career as a reporter for KMEX-34 television in Los Angeles in 1981. Her insightful reporting on the impact of daily news to the increasingly growing Hispanic community in Southern California quickly earned her the credibility that would lead to her assume the anchor chair of "Noticiero Univision" in 1987.

Since then her brand of journalism has earned her dozens of awards and recognition from important groups such as the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and the National Organization for Women that honored her with the coveted Intrepid Award.

Salinas has been featured as one of the most influential Hispanics in the United States in several publications including Hispanic Magazine, People En Español and PODER, and was named one of the "Top 15 Most Influential Hispanics" among Latino voters in a poll conducted by Hispanic Voter Trends.

Salinas was born in Los Angeles to Mexican immigrant parents. She resides in Coral Gables, Florida, with her two daughters, Julia Alexandra and Gabriela María.

Frank Sharry

Frank Sharry is Founder and Executive Director of America's Voice. With the support of allies in the immigration reform community, he created the new organization in early 2008 to focus on communications and media as part of a renewed effort to win comprehensive immigration reform. Prior to heading America's Voice, Frank served as Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum for 17 years. The Forum, based in Washington D.C., is one of the nation's premier immigration policy organizations, and has been at the center of every major legislative and policy debate related to immigration for the past quarter of a century.

Before joining the Forum, Frank was Executive Director of Centro Presente, a local organization working with Central American refugees in the greater Boston area. He initially became interested in immigrants and refugees while teaching in Singapore in the late 1970s. He was hired to assist with the rescue and relocation of boat refugees fleeing war-torn Vietnam and landing in Indonesia. Sharry is a native of Connecticut and a graduate of Princeton University.

Jake Tapper

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper joined the network in January 2013. His one-hour weekday program THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER debuted in March 2013. The program seeks to examine and advance stories that demonstrate Tapper’s own curiosities and interests with headlines from around the country and the globe, from politics to money, and sports to popular culture. Tapper has been a widely-respected reporter in the nation’s capital for more than 14 years. His most recent book, THE OUTPOST: AN UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICAN VALOR, debuted in the top 10 on THE NEW YORK TIMES best seller list.

Tapper joined CNN from ABC News, where he most recently served as senior White House correspondent, a position he was named to immediately following the 2008 presidential election. In this role, Tapper contributed regularly to GOOD MORNING AMERICA, NIGHTLINE and WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH DIANE SAWYER, in addition to serving as substitute host of THIS WEEK and writing for his blog, POLITICAL PUNCH on ABCNews.com. Tapper has earned the coveted Merriman Smith Award for presidential coverage from the White House Correspondents’ Association an unprecedented three consecutive times. He also played a key role in ABC News’ Emmy award winning coverage of the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, and its Murrow-Award winning coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden.

In his more than nine years at ABC News, Tapper covered a wide range of stories, visiting remote corners of Afghanistan, covering the war in Iraq from Baghdad, and spending time in New Orleans to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the levee system. In 2008, he served as the lead political reporter for the coverage of the presidential election. He traveled to early voting states across the country for interviews with the candidates, including the eventual Democratic and Republican nominees, then-Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain.

Prior to joining ABC News, Tapper served as Washington correspondent, then national correspondent, for Salon.com. He began his journalism career at the WASHINGTON CITY PAPER and his reporting has been published in THE NEW YORKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES AND THE WEEKLY Standard, among others. He has drawn caricatures and illustrations for the WASHINGTON POST and the LOS ANGELES TIMES, and his comic strip, “Capitol Hell,” appeared in ROLL CALL from 1994 to 2003. In 2001, he hosted the CNN show Take 5, a weekend program that featured young journalists talking about politics and pop culture.

Tapper is the author of three books, including THE OUTPOST, DOWN AND DIRTY: THE PLOT TO STEAL THE PRESIDENCY, which was published in 2001, and BODY SLAM: THE JESSE VENTURA STORY, which was published in 1999.

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from Dartmouth College in 1991 and lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, daughter, son, dog, and two cats.

Antonio Villaraigosa

Antonio R. Villaraigosa is the 41st mayor of Los Angeles and has held the office since 2005. During his first term, Villaraigosa built the police force to its largest size in history, oversaw the steepest reduction in crime since the 1950s, and developed LA’s first comprehensive anti-gang strategy. Having dedicated much of his first term to reforming LA’s public schools, he now oversees the Partnership for LA Schools, which runs ten of the lowest-performing schools. With the launching of Green LA, Villaraigosa has set the city on the path to becoming one of the greenest large cities in the nation. Among the many improvements in becoming greener, LA has met the Kyoto targets for reducing greenhouse gases four years ahead of schedule, has met the first target of getting 10 percent of energy from renewable sources, and is on track to reaching 40 percent by 2020.