Blake Hounshell, an influential political journalist who was editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine and a top editor at Politico before joining The New York Times and overseeing the popular “On Politics” newsletter, died Tuesday in Washington. He was 44.
His family said in a statement that he had passed away “after a long and courageous battle with depression”. Police in Washington are investigating the death as a suicide, a police official said.
Mr Hounshell, who joined The Times in 2021, wrote “On Politics” from Washington, incorporating contributions from other Times correspondents. The newsletter is published five days a week and is regularly read by an estimated half a million paying subscribers.
Mr Hounshell “quickly distinguished himself as our foremost writer of political newsletters and a gifted observer of our country’s political scene,” Joseph Kahn, executive editor of the Times, said in a memo to staff, adding: “He became an indispensable and always insightful voice in the report during a busy election cycle.”
The latest “On Politics” newsletter from Mr. Hounshell, which focused on the conundrum facing California Governor Gavin Newsom about the state’s death penalty policy, was published Monday. On Friday, he wrote about the Republican Party’s difficulties in attracting young voters.
“Months before the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats worried that younger voters would fall into old habits and stay home,” Hounshell wrote. “The analysis is still a little fuzzy, but as more data comes in, it seems that enough young people in many key states have shown up to play a decisive role.
“And now,” he added, “some Republicans are warning that their party’s bad reputation among millennial and Gen-Z voters could become an existential threat. But there is no consensus on how much, if at all, the Republican message needs to change.”
Born September 4, 1978 in California, Bernard Blakeman Hounshell grew up in Delaware and Pittsburgh. He graduated from Yale University in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He started his journalism career after studying Arabic in Cairo.
In 2011, he was a finalist for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, given by the Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan, for his coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings in the early 2010s.
During his time as editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2013, the magazine won three National Magazine Awards as it transformed publishing for the Internet age.
At Politico, where he worked for eight years before joining The Times, he served as digital editor, editor-in-chief for Washington and political news, editor-in-chief, and editor-in-chief of the website’s magazine, which he initiated.
Since joining Foreign Policy in 2006, he has spent 15 years launching, writing and editing newsletters and blogs.
David Halbfinger, political editor of The Times, said on Tuesday Mr Hounshell was gifted with “the kind of broad intellect that enabled him to explain everything to anyone”.
He is survived by his wife, Sandy Choi, and two children, David and Astrid. He lived in northwest Washington.
If you are having suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
