It occurred to me that y’all — to the extent that there is indeed a you all out there, somewhere, still tip-toeing around this graveyard of a blog — might appreciate knowing something of the past six years. Technically it has been five years, seven months, and 19 days since I last posted. But the header only allowed for so many characters.

In brief:

At the end of 2019, I left The Atlantic for The New York Times, where I covered the 2020 election cycle. I remember my first front-page story, and how my husband and I put on scarves and scraped ice off the windshield and drove to Barnes & Noble to find a copy. He took a picture of me holding up the paper, and in my hands it felt miraculous. This was January 2020. There would be more front-page stories after that, features and a cover story for the Times Magazine. But we would take the pictures at home, because at home I didn’t have to wear a mask. It still felt miraculous.

In the fall of 2022, I returned to The Atlantic. “Did it feel like a homecoming?” someone asked me recently, and I said that it did.

For the past four years I have been working on a book for Penguin Press about Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., and Governor George Wallace, the story of the civil rights era through the lens of their relationship. This book — the writing, the research, the travel, the people, all of it, everything — has been one of the great joys of my life. I can’t wait for it to be bound and real, a hardcover to hold.

Here are some of the stories I’ve written in the past five years, seven months, and 19 days. I’ve listed them in descending chronology, by publication.

The Atlantic
The Accidental Speaker
Is Kamala Harris Ready to Be President?
A Star Reporter’s Break with Reality
Why Is Marjorie Taylor Greene Like This?
Ignoring Trump’s Orders, Hoping He’ll Forget
Trump’s Chief of Staff Says He’s Having a Ball
Inside Ivanka’s Dreamworld
Heidi Cruz Didn’t Plan for This
The Bullet in My Arm

The New York Times Magazine
The G.O.P. Won It All in Texas. Then It Turned on Itself.
Win or Lose, It’s Donald Trump’s Republican Party
The Fall of Jeff Sessions, and What Came After

The New York Times
For a Civil Rights Hero, 90, a New Battle Unfolds on His Childhood Street
In a Small Alabama Town, Suddenly All Politics Is National
Stacey Abrams Wants More Than the Vice Presidency
Donald Trump and Florida, a Love Affair
Her Facebook Friends Asked if Anyone Was Actually Sick. She Had an Answer.
Mitch McConnell Wasn’t Always Loved by Republicans. He Is Now.

Thank you for reading, always.

Yours,
Elaina