Candy Crowley, the veteran CNN political correspondent and host of CNN's State of the Union, will leave after 27 years with the network, CNN president Jeff Zucker announced in a memo to staff on Friday.

"[I]t is with mixed emotions, that I wanted to let you know that Candy has let us know that she has made the decision to move on, so she can embark on the next chapter of her already prolific career," Zucker wrote. "As difficult as it is for us to imagine CNN without Candy, we know that she comes to this decision thoughtfully, and she has our full support."

Zucker did not mention who would replace Crowley on State of the Union, the network's Sunday public affairs program. The network will be keeping the show, a spokesperson confirmed.*

Crowley joined CNN in 1987 as a political correspondent, and covered the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Bob Dole, Jesse Jackson, Edward Kennedy, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan and Mitt Romney. In 2012, she moderated the presidential town hall debate, where she made waves after correcting Romney's assertions about Obama's response to the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi.

"To say she lives and breathes politics is more than an understatement," Zucker wrote in his memo. "She has an innate ability to sense its nuance, push its limits, and ask questions that others won’t.  She is beloved in Washington even by those that she so skillfully takes to task on Sunday mornings.  And she’s an award-winning journalist – taking home everything from a Peabody and Emmys to an Edward R. Murrow award.  She is a television news icon."

*This post has been updated.