NBC News has officially named Kristen Welker to the role of White House correspondent, joining Chuck Todd and Mike Viqueira.
Welker has filled in on the beat since June, when Savannah Guthrie left to join to Today show as co-anchor.
The announcement was made Wednesday along with NBC News' coverage assignments for the 2012 election cycle. Peter Alexander and Ron Mott will lead the network's reporting of the Republican presidential race with correspondents Ron Allen, Andrea Mitchell, Kelly O'Donnell and John Yang and eight embed reporters already on the campaign trail.
Chuck Todd will continue to oversee all aspects of the network's political coverage as NBC News political director and chief White House correspondent.
NBC News also announced earlier this week that it has hired The Washington Post's Perry Bacon, Jr. as political editor of the African-American news site theGrio.com, based in Washington, DC.
