Ken Rudin
Ken Rudin is NPR's Political Junkie. For most of the past 20 years, Rudin has been the eyes and ears of political coverage as political editor. Rudin focuses on all aspects of politics, from presidential elections with the primaries, national conventions, debates and general election, to the races for the House, Senate and state governors. He has analyzed every congressional race in the nation since 1984.In 2011, Rudin added to his duties by becoming part of the network's Impact of Government project. This local-national journalism initiative will add editorial resources and reporters to NPR member stations in all 50 states, to better inform the public about the impact that the actions of state governments has on citizens and communities. Rudin mentors and advises these reporters on covering the effects politics and politicians have on people.
In addition to his role with Impact of Government, Rudin continues to contribute NPR's political coverage. Every Wednesday, he can be heard on Talk of the Nation in the "Political Junkie" segment. In the "It's All Politics" blog on NPR.org, Rudin delves into campaign history, strategy and trivia, including the popular ScuttleButton contest.
Rudin was a key player on the NPR team that won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton award for excellence in broadcast journalism in 2002 for coverage of campaign finance.
From 1983 through 1991, Rudin worked at ABC News, serving first as deputy political director and later as the off-air Capitol Hill reporter covering the House. He first joined NPR in 1991, as its first political editor. Rudin returned to NPR in 1998, after a three-year absence during which he was the managing editor of the Hotline, a daily political newsletter. He also wrote the "Political Graffiti" column for The Hill, a newspaper covering Capitol Hill.
A political junkie for many decades, Rudin has one of the most extensive collections of campaign buttons in the country, a collection that now surpasses 70,000 items. Rudin is a graduate of Pace University in New York.
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After eight years of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles voters will pick a, shall we say, more charismatically-challenged successor.
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It's been a rough couple of weeks for John Boehner. He was all but shut out of the fiscal cliff deal, dissed by his own party, and suffered 12 GOP defections when re-elected as speaker. But did he emerge from all of this as a loser? It's not that simple. -
George McGovern, Arlen Specter, Warren Rudman, Dan Inouye ... just some of the political giants who died in 2012. This week's super-sized Political Junkie column is dedicated to their memory. -
The election is over. Or is it? Both sides look ready to start fighting again should President Obama nominate U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. -
The Tea Party and other conservatives argue that Mitt Romney lost the election because he was "too moderate." And they are calling for a complete overhaul of the Republican Party. But the evolving demographics may have played a bigger role.
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This pre-election Political Junkie column focuses on all presidential swing states and key races for House and Senate. -
In Political Junkie Ken Rudin's view, not since Jack Kennedy picked Lyndon Johnson has the choice of a running mate truly affected the outcome in November. The record for subsequent No. 2s is a bit mixed. Here's a scorecard. -
It's too early to know what kind of a difference Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan will make to the GOP ticket. Still, there have been choices who have proved crucial. Here, the top five from the last half-century or so.
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The way we elect a president necessitates that the candidates have to campaign only in the so-called "battleground states." Here is the list of the 10 states that will determine the November winner, and how they voted in the past. -
Just as the Wisconsin recall election was portrayed as having national implications for November, many are saying that the message coming out of Tuesday's special election to replace Gabby Giffords goes far beyond Arizona.
