Yahoo News West Coast Correspondent August 2014—Present
Longform national-affairs reporting from a Western perspective, with features on how the town of Whitefish, Mt. defeated a neo-Nazi troll storm, how the U.S. military is failing its canine veterans, how L.A. is planning to survive the Big One, how Ted Cruz has honed his strategic thinking over the last 30 years, and how — and why — Marco Rubio pulled a 180 on immigration reform. Profile subjects have included Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and California Republican Neel Kashkari, Jerry Brown’s no-hope challenger for governor.
Covered the 2016 election by creating Yahoo’s Unconventional column — a reported, thrice-weekly guide to “what could be the craziest presidential conventions in decades.” Garnered more than 15 million page views by the end of the DNC. Followed Unconventional with Down Ticket, a sister column about 2016’s key House, Senate and governor’s races.
Newsweek/Daily Beast Senior Writer December 2008–August 2014
Reported and wrote on politics and culture for the print and web editions of the magazine, with regular contributions to The Daily Beast’s election channel and frequent appearances on MSNBC and CNN. Cover stories included a profile of U.S. women’s soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo, a psychological portrait of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, an essay about reinventing American masculinity and a report on the killing of Osama bin Laden. Other stories included a dispatch from Albuquerque on the making of Breaking Bad, a behind-the-scenes feature on the Beach Boys’ reunion, an inside look at Obama’s 2012 reelection machine in Chicago and a series of in-depth profiles of influential conservatives (Susana Martinez, Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Scott Brown, and John Boehner).
Stumper Campaign Blogger October 2007–November 2008
Created the ‘Stumper’ blog and crisscrossed the country with all of the 2008 presidential candidates, filing four or five items a day—reportage, analysis and humor—while continuing to write political stories for the weekly magazine. Ranked as Newsweek.com’s most-read author of 2008 after generating an average of 2 million page views per month. Won MINOnline’s Best Consumer Blog award and named one of the cycle’s best news bloggers by both Editor & Publisher and the Deadline Club of New York.
National Affairs Reporter March 2006–September 2007
Reported and wrote weekly features for Newsweek’s National Affairs section; profiled Al Franken, revealed how MySpace and police officers are working together to solve crimes, pieced together the story of a cannibalistic New Orleans murder-suicide and discovered the U.S. military recruiting at paintball events.
Graphics Reporter December 2004–February 2006
Editorial Intern June 2004–December 2004
Contributed regularly to the Periscope, Business and Enterprise sections of the magazine; researched, wrote and conceptualized weekly information graphics for the National and Foreign News sections; developed and wrote the inaugural “Swing State Watch” information graphics; reported on John Kerry’s years at prep school for a cover profile.