Astead herndon gay
By Elise McGlothian—
Astead Herndonis a national political reporter for The New York Times. He was previously a Washington-based political reporter and a City Hall reporter for The Boston Globe.
As an undergraduate at the Marquette University in Wisconsin, Astead took a year off to operate inside of a classroom through AmeriCorps. His experience eventually landed him a reporting fellowship – sparking a successfulcareer in journalism.
As a finale to our series on Black Communicators, I spoke with Astead about his career as a political reporter and what needs to change so that more minorities can make it to top-tier positions like his. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How did you procure to where you are now withThe Brand-new York Times, and did you always want to record about politics?
I was always interested in politics, but I never really idea of being a political journalist. When I went to college, I reflection I wanted to work in politics, like as a speech writer. But then I worked on one campaign, and I hated it! So, I swit
“2016 was a story of political media completely missing the land. That has been my driver of the reason to execute bottom-up reporting. By the second I came to The Novel York Times in 2018, I was very explicit that I wanted to try something alternative. I wanted to report on different types of stories.”
-Astead Herndon, episode 339 of Talk Uncomplicated with Sam Fragoso
With the closing of the latest season of The Run-Up, political reporter Astead Herndon (The New York Times) returns to the show. At the top, we discuss the recent impactful decisions issued by the Supreme Court (6:36), what to expect from the GOP primaries (8:54), and the potential of a third-party ticket (17:32). Then, we dive into the kitchen table issues guiding the electorate (22:55), Herndon’s early years at The Times (24:40), and why he believes in the power of grassroots journalism (25:38).
On the back-half, we examine his mission statement as a correspondent (29:30), what he believes The Times has learned in the years since the 2016 election (42:30), and who he ultimately makes this work for (59:06).
Show-notes:
Illustrations byKrishna Shenoi.
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Derrick Bryson Taylor, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Astead W. Herndon
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This is part of What We Learned, a series of reflections on the meaning and legacy of the Trump years.
Astead W. Herndon wasn’t surprised when Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for the 2016 election. He had barely graduated college when he attended one of Trump’s earliest rallies as a reporting intern for the Boston Globe. He talked to rallygoers, and saw firsthand how Trump encouraged a supporter who suggested that Barack Obama was a secret Muslim. A scant years later, he became a national political correspondent for the New York Times, where he continued to cover Trump rallies. In a phone conversation just after Trump left office, we talked about why his being with the Times didn’t dissuade many Trump supporters from talking to him, how creature a freshman reporter gave him an advantage, and the biggest challenge facing reporters in the Biden era. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Aymann Ismail: Help in 2015, you had just graduated college and were at the Boston Globe, and you were reporting on one of Trump’s earliest rallies, the one in New Hampshire, and interviewed a handful of