Leah Willingham
Leah Willingham reports on the pressure points where laws, institutions and politics collide with everyday life for the Associated Press. Her work follows state-level decisions, court proceedings and enforcement actions, with a consistent focus on how they reshape rights, safety and daily routines. Alongside hard political and legal stories, she takes on community-centered pieces that show how national figures and events play out on the ground.
State politics and contested rules
Willingham’s political coverage concentrates on how state officials wield their authority over elections and core civil rights. In one major piece on a challenge to President Donald Trump’s sweeping election overhaul order, she tracks Democratic attorneys general from 19 states as they seek to block new federal rules on voter registration, mail ballots, voting equipment and campaign donations, framing the case as a direct test of separation of powers and state control over elections.
She explains contested provisions clearly, laying out requirements such as proof of citizenship for voter registration and stricter deadlines for mail ballots while grounding them in constitutional arguments and state resistance.
Her reporting on reproductive health reflects the same focus on access, documenting when the only abortion clinic in West Virginia stops performing abortions and noting how the facility shifts to other services such as STI testing, birth control and related care. Across these stories she returns to the question of who sets the rules and how those choices close or preserve avenues for participation and care.
Labor, gig work and economic power
Another strand of Willingham’s beat is the politics of work, especially when it involves new forms of labor and organizing. Her coverage of Uber and Lyft drivers in Massachusetts certifying the first statewide ride-hailing union explains how a voter-approved ballot measure created a novel framework for gig workers to unionize and bargain collectively while remaining independent contractors.
She details what that legal category means in practice, noting that drivers classified as contractors lack many traditional labor protections, and then shows how union certification changes their leverage with companies. The story balances policy architecture - the ballot language, regulatory framework, classification rules - with scenes from rallies outside the state house and voices of drivers celebrating a milestone for the gig economy.
Through this lens, labor is not treated as an abstract economic indicator but as a political process with clear winners, risks and precedent-setting decisions.
Immigration enforcement and use of force
Willingham covers federal immigration enforcement when it raises questions about lethal force and accountability.
In her reporting on a federal immigration officer fatally shooting a Colombian man in Maine, she situates the incident as the second time in a week that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents used deadly force and notes that it forms part of a longer pattern of deaths since Trump’s immigration crackdown. She lays out basic facts - location, agency, the sequence leading to the shooting - while tying them to the broader debate over how immigration officers exercise power in the field.
By placing individual cases within a count of prior deaths and within the context of federal policy, her stories turn what could be an isolated event into a window on enforcement culture and oversight.
Courtroom trials, mental health and procedure
High-profile trials and their human stakes are another recurring focus in Willingham’s work. Her reporting on the Lindsay Clancy case follows jurors as they visit the home where Clancy strangled her three children, emphasizing the rarity of such a site visit and the way it lets jurors see the space where an outwardly ordinary family life came apart. She covers testimony from Clancy’s mother and sister about her escalating anxiety, paranoia and suicidality, connecting those narratives to the legal question of criminal responsibility. In subsequent pieces she tracks the jury’s prolonged deliberations, the foreperson’s note about a single juror refusing to follow instructions on reasonable doubt, and the judge’s decision first to send the deadlocked jury back and then to declare a mistrial. The reporting is procedural and precise - detailing notes, instructions and rulings - yet attentive to how mental health and family testimony shape the case’s unresolved outcome.
Storms, safety and life under scrutiny
Willingham also covers severe weather and safety, often over multiple days as conditions evolve. Her nor’easter stories follow a powerful storm system as it lashes the Northeast, floods coastal communities, knocks out power to well over 100,000 customers, and keeps tidal flooding threats in play across several high-tide cycles.
She integrates forecasts from the National Weather Service, descriptions of massive waves and storm-force winds, and on-the-ground scenes of residents slogging through floodwaters or monitoring rising tides. In a different register, her piece from Taylor Swift’s beach town in Rhode Island turns a rumored wedding into a close look at how celebrity presence reshapes community life. The story traces how the appearance of a large tent near Swift’s estate triggers speculation, online theories and local “chitter chatter,” then uses those reactions to show how curiosity about the singer has become woven into everyday routines in the seaside village.
Taken together, these features show a reporter comfortable moving between hard safety coverage and cultural moments, as long as they reveal how outside forces - storms, fame, federal policy - bear down on local people.
Across politics, labor, immigration, courts and community stories, Willingham’s work is defined by its attention to the mechanics of power and their concrete consequences. She foregrounds state actors, rules and procedures but keeps her focus on those who live with the outcomes, whether they are voters, drivers, patients, jurors or residents in the path of a storm.
4 more politics journalists.
A.D. Quig
A.D. Quig follows money and power through Chicago and Cook County government, showing how political decisions, taxes and public spending affect residents and businesses. At the Chicago Tribune, she covers city and county politics, municipal finance, tax policy, budgets and the structures shaping mayoral and council authority. She joined the Tribune in 2022 after covering politics for Crain’s Chicago Business and The Daily Line. Her work examines council power, ethics rules, police leadership, tax incentives, public agencies and pandemic aid. She has reported on data center tax breaks, property tax errors, federal relief spending and the fiscal effects of major development proposals. Quig combines insider government reporting with public accountability journalism. She uses public records, data and budget documents, follows committees and staff negotiations, and explains complex decisions in plain language with precise numbers and a direct link to everyday consequences.
Adam Daly
Adam Daly covers politics for amNewYork with a focus on the inner workings of city and state government and the low-profile forums where power is exercised and negotiated. He reports on commissions and panels that shape how New York is governed, treating charter reform and government efficiency as central political terrain. His coverage of moves to replace an Adams-era charter commission with a new government efficiency panel foregrounds mandate, authority, and what “efficiency” means in practice for agencies and services. He tracks who gains and loses influence when one commission supplants another and which constituencies are being answered to. Daly explains dense procedural questions in clear, reader-facing terms, using specific institutional details and occasional wordplay to connect jargon-heavy reforms to public spending, service delivery, and mayoral power.
Adam Pack
Adam Pack covers Capitol Hill through power struggles, investigations and ideological fights, focusing on how Congress intersects with Donald Trump’s agenda. He is a politics writer on Fox News Digital’s Capitol Hill team, covering Congress, federal elections, legislative battles, election rules, war powers, primaries and intraparty fights. He previously wrote for the Daily Caller News Foundation. His reporting examines deadlines, vote counts, bill language, campaign spending, court rulings, oversight reports, culture clashes and emerging issues such as AI-backed political groups. He has covered FISA reauthorization, defense spending, the SAVE America Act, housing policy, redistricting, candidate absences, primary spending and disputes over sex, gender, religion and race-based caucuses. He reports primarily through news features and investigative-style pieces built around documents, committee reports, court records, unearthed video and specific legislative details. He often co-writes complex Capitol Hill stories and publishes “FIRST ON FOX” exclusives.
Adam Sullivan
Adam Sullivan is a veteran politics reporter for WCAX who connects elections and party disputes to everyday life. He covers statewide races, party primaries, federal representation, political rhetoric, extremism, and accountability across the Upper Valley and neighboring states. His reporting includes Becca Balint’s victory over Molly Gray in the Democratic U.S. House primary to replace Congressman Peter Welch. He also reports when political controversies affect public safety, political culture, towns, and institutions, including a New Hampshire Libertarian Party post endorsing violence against elected Democrats. Sullivan follows cultural stories with civic consequences, such as Noah Kahan’s appeal to fans to stop stealing a Strafford road sign linked to his music. He writes straight news centered on concrete events, official reactions, political context, community impact, and what comes next.