Michael Kruse is on staff at The New York Times, where he reports and writes about the most important and interesting people, places and topics in politics. Before The Times, he worked at POLITICO, where he won the National Press Foundation’s Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress and back-to-back National Headliner Awards for his coverage of Donald Trump and a congressional race in Ohio. Before POLITICO, he worked at the Tampa Bay Times, where he won the American Society of News Editors’ distinguished writing award, the Paul Hansell Award for Distinguished Achievement in Florida Journalism and other state, regional and national honors. Anthologized in The Best American Newspaper Narratives, Out There: The Wildest Stories from Outside Magazine, and Next Wave: America’s New Generation of Great Literary Journalists, he’s at work on a book about the 2000 election. A native of the Boston area and a graduate of Davidson College, he lives in North Carolina with his wife, two daughters, three dogs and a cat.