Michelle Caruso-Cabrera

Caruso-Cabrera in 2011

Caruso-Cabrera with Thomas Farley in 2018

Caruso-Cabrera was a researcher and later a special projects producer for Univision from 1991 to 1994, where she was a producer on a team that won an Emmy Award for a five-part series on children with AIDS.[13][12] She then worked as a reporter for WTSP in St. Petersburg, Florida, from 1994 to 1998.[13]

She joined CNBC in August 1998, working there until January 2019, and became the network's first Hispanic anchor in 2001.[13][14][15][16][17][18] Caruso-Cabrera co-anchored Power Lunch with Bill Griffeth from 2002 to 2003.[19] She received a Broadcast Journalist of the Year (2004) award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.[20] She co-hosted the Worldwide Exchange program in 2005-07, along with Christine Tan in Asia and Ross Westgate in Europe.[21][22] Caruso-Cabrera began appearing regularly on Power Lunch in 2009 in an analyst capacity. She was promoted to co-presenter of Power Lunch in 2009, and remained in that position until 2013. She rejoined Power Lunch for her third stint as co-presenter in 2016.

She left CNBC in September 2018 to join the board of directors of a Dallas, Texas, financial firm. Caruso-Cabrera held that position until February 2020.[23][24][25]

As a registered Republican, Caruso-Cabrera wrote a book in 2010 entitled You Know I'm Right: More Prosperity, Less Government. In it, she called for the elimination of both Social Security and Medicare, which she characterized as "pyramid schemes", and expressed numerous other conservative positions.[26][27] Caruso-Cabrera also said she wanted to abolish the federal United States Department of Commerce, United States Department of Education, United States Department of Energy, and United States Department of Labor, as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.[26] She urged that insider trading be made legal.[26] In addition, she proposed creating personal savings accounts saying they would lead people to work longer, and converting Medicare into a corporate-type 401(k) plan.[28][29] The book has a foreword by CNBC colleague Larry Kudlow, who later became President Donald Trump's National Economic Council director.[28][30][26][31]

In 2020, four years after switching away from the Republican Party, to become a registered Democrat, Caruso-Cabrera tweeted, "I support Medicare and social security-its important to take care fo [sic] the most vulnerable. Medicare for all is taking health insurance away from people who have health insurance that they already like."[32]

A registered member of the Republican Party through 2015, Caruso-Cabrera switched and registered as a Democrat in 2016.[2][3][4]

Caruso-Cabrera filed official paperwork on February 10, 2020, challenging freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Democratic primary for New York's 14th congressional district, which covers portions of the Bronx and Queens.[33][34][35][36][37] Caruso-Cabrera was endorsed by what Politico called the "traditionally conservative" United States Chamber of Commerce, a business lobbying group that generally backs Republicans.[38][39][40][41] On April 8, her staff reported that Caruso-Cabrera's campaign had raised $1 million,[42] and it was reported that over four dozen finance industry professionals, including private equity executives and investment bankers, had made early donations to Caruso-Cabrera.[30][43] In the primary she received 11,337 votes, 18.2% of the vote, finishing in second place.[44]

Caruso-Cabrera ran in the general election on the ticket of the Serve America Movement, a party with 349 registered members in New York.[45][46] She received 2,000 votes, or 0.9%, finishing in last place.[47][48][49]

Caruso-Cabrera ran for election in the 2021 New York City Comptroller race.[50][51][52] She ran in the Democratic primary against among others NYS Senator Brian Benjamin, entrepreneur and former US Marine Zach Iscol, NYC Councilmember Brad Lander, NYS Senator Kevin Parker, and NYS Assemblymember David Weprin.[53][54]

As of May 25, 2021, she was 6th among the candidates in fundraising, having raised $917,000 in campaign contributions (though that included $300,000 that she personally lent her own campaign).[55] She had $248,000 left, and had not met the threshold to receive public matching funds.[55]