About Julia
Julia Jester is a journalist based in DC (but working everywhere)
As a political campaign embed for NBC News, Julia reported the latest developments from the campaign trail, built sources and broke news, shot candidate events, provided editorial highlights and context, wrote feature articles and dissected policy rollouts, field produced, and covered the on-the-ground scene on-air for MSNBC & NBC News Now.
During the 2020 election cycle, she covered the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary, living in the Granite State for eight months chasing the twists and turns of the Democratic race; followed the campaigns of Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg, among others; chased Biden’s vice president search; tracked the latest from battleground state Michigan; and reported on the pivotal Georgia Senate runoffs. When coronavirus and protests against racism transformed the year, she covered both critical stories on-air and online.
Julia is an alumna of Georgetown University, where she majored in American Studies with a double minor in government and journalism, merging her interests in culture and politics. Born just outside of Baltimore, she was raised with a passion for performing arts and a love of birds — Ravens and Orioles, to be exact.
Before breaking into political journalism, she was a researcher for the TODAY Show in New York City and Los Angeles, receiving two Emmy nominations as a producer for "Outstanding Morning Show" (2017 & 2019). She earned two NBCUniversal GEM (Going the Extra Mile) Awards for her contributions to TODAY's 2018 Winter Olympic coverage and daily work ethic supporting the crash news unit.
Julia started her broadcast career as an East Coast NBCUniversal Page, where she gave NBC studio tours, led audience services for shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Saturday Night Live, and held assignments throughout the media industry: CNBC Long Form Production, MSNBC's "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell," and NBCU Corporate Social Responsibility. Julia was selected as the inaugural member of the Page Program's reverse mentorship initiative, matching pages with senior executives for 1:1 mentoring sessions in digital technology and social media.
Before joining the program, she was an Engagement Intern & Community Manager at Vox.com in DC, working closely with the digital analytics and editorial teams to establish and promote the new brand. As a news intern for Al Jazeera America's America Tonight, she helped highlight current issues through in-depth human interest stories. Her first internship with Blue State Digital sparked her passion for digital media and how innovative technology and writing can merge to tell impactful stories.
While in college, Julia sold her soul to the Georgetown Voice as editorial board chair and news editor during her time with the weekly newsmagazine. She also tutored underprivileged elementary school students with the non-profit organization DC Reads and performed with Groove Theory, Georgetown's premier hip-hop dance team. Still fueling her artistic side, she choreographs for PowerUp Dance Center back home in MD.