New York Times Political Columnist Dies at 44

Blake Hounshell, a New York Times political columnist, passed away after a ‘battle with depression.’

He was 44.

Hounshell was the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine and a top editor at Politico before joining The New York Times and overseeing its popular newsletter “On Politics.”

The police in Washington were investigating the death as a suicide, a police official said.

New York Times journalist Blake Hounshell dead at 44 after 'courageous battle with depression' https://t.co/AWDPXzbBXt

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) January 11, 2023

New York Times political columnist Blake Hounshell has tragically died of an apparent suicide. He battled with depression.

If you are struggling with thoughts of self harm, contact the (US) National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. https://t.co/Rm7MawHsce

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) January 11, 2023

The New York Times wrote:

Mr. Hounshell, who joined The Times in 2021, wrote “On Politics” out of Washington, incorporating contributions from other Times correspondents. The newsletter appears five days a week and is regularly read by an estimated half-million paying subscribers.

Mr. Hounshell “quickly distinguished himself as our lead politics newsletter writer and a gifted observer of our country’s political scene,” Joseph Kahn, the Times’s executive editor, said in a memo to the staff, adding, “He became an indispensable and always insightful voice in the report during a busy election cycle.”

Mr. Hounshell’s last “On Politics” newsletter, focusing on the conundrum facing Gov. Gavin Newsom of California over the state’s capital punishment policies, was published on Monday. On Friday he wrote about the Republican Party’s difficulties in attracting young voters.

“For months before the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats fretted that younger voters might fall into old habits and stay home,” Mr. Hounshell wrote. “The analysis is still a little hazy, but as more data comes in, it looks as if enough young people showed up in many key states to play a decisive role.

New York Times editor-in-chief Joe Kahn and managing editor Carolyn Ryan informed staff via email that Hounshell “tragically passed away.”

“Blake was a dedicated journalist who quickly distinguished himself as our lead politics newsletter writer. He became an indispensible and always insightful voice in the report during a busy election cycle,” the editors wrote.

“We’ve lost a valuable colleague and this is a heartbreaking loss to our team.”

The Times added:

Born on Sept. 4, 1978, in California, Bernard Blakeman Hounshell was raised in Delaware and Pittsburgh. He graduated from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2002. He began 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 reporting on the Arab Spring uprisings of the early 2010s.

In his time as managing editor of Foreign Policy, from 2009 to 2013, the magazine won three National Magazine Awards as he transformed the publication for the internet era.

At Politico, where he worked for eight years before joining The Times, he was digital editorial director, managing editor for Washington and political news, managing editor, and editor in chief of the website’s magazine, which he had initiated.