Politics
While the Beltway set fixates on the latest horse race, I focus my reporting on how the shifting inclinations of ordinary people promise to reshape our political reality.
Featured Reporting
Barn Burners
Harper’s Magazine, October 2026
“While less heralded than the rise of democratic socialism in New York City or the leftist primary triumphs in Maine and Michigan, the ability of like-minded candidates to compete in the heartland by focusing on elite corruption and economic insecurity suggested what a truly national political realignment might entail. Over the course of two weeks, I tracked the reemergence of prairie populism from its birthplace in Kansas to Nebraska, where the movement reached its height with the three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, and on to Iowa, where the sensibility was briefly revived in the Eighties during the worst farm crisis in living memory.”
Mother Jones, September 2026
“The impact of anti-immigrant policies has been amplified over the past 20 months by the Trump administration’s quieter efforts to defund the nonprofit legal aid organizations that provide free assistance and representation for migrants. Immigration law is infamous for its impossible hours and laughable salaries, but since early 2025 the sense of purpose that animates so many immigration attorneys has been tested by the federal government’s efforts to target them—and their budgets. The ensuing chaos nearly broke them.”
First Trump Came for Immigrants. Then He Came for Their Lawyers.
Harper’s, May 2024
“To understand how presidential campaigns are covered in the digital era, it’s necessary to get one popular misconception out of the way: There is no bus. No shared hotel. In short, no access. Theodore White sitting with John F. Kennedy as he watched returns from the Wisconsin primary; John McCain ensconced in the back of the Straight Talk Express, barking, ‘Ask me another question!’; Barack Obama inviting reporters over for a round of beers on the eve of the Iowa caucuses—that age is over.”
The Race for Second Place
The Nation, July 2026
“If Troy Jackson manages to defeat Susan Collins in November, he will immediately become one of the most influential voices for the labor movement in Washington. With that in mind, I canvassed prominent organizers in Maine as well as Jackson’s colleagues in Augusta ahead of Saturday’s convention in order to get a better sense of exactly how his commitment to unions has manifested over the years in a place that’s not typically associated with organized labor.”
The Logger Who Could Unseat Susan Collins
More Clips
“How Troy Jackson Became the Heir to Graham Platner’s Movement,” The Nation, July 2026
“What the Birth of the Sanctuary Movement Teaches Us Today,” The Nation, April 2025
“Arizona Dreamin’,” The Baffler, September 2024
“How the Border Went MAGA,” New York Magazine, October 2022
“The Revelations Will be Televised,” The Baffler, September 2022
“But His Emails,” n+1, October 2020
“What the Chart Wants,” Real Life, October 2020