We are excited to share that Laurel Rosenhall is joining National as a correspondent covering California politics.
Laurel comes to us from The Los Angeles Times, where she has been California politics editor since last year and Sacramento bureau chief since 2022. She has led scoopy coverage of the state Capitol and supervised journalists in Sacramento, L.A. and Washington. Reporters on her team were recognized with the Dirksen Award from the National Press Foundation for coverage of Senator Dianne Feinstein.
From 2015 to 2021, Laurel was a politics reporter at CalMatters and helped grow the publication from a little-known startup to a trusted source of in-depth news in California. In 2020, she was included on The Washington Post’s list of outstanding state politics reporters, and in 2021 she was named Journalist of the Year by the Sacramento Press Club. Before that, she cut her teeth for 13 years at The Sacramento Bee covering the California State Capitol and education.
She exposed a botched effort during the pandemic by the state of California to spend half a billion dollars on masks and wrote elegant profiles of California political players like Robert Rivas, speaker of the California State Assembly, and Kevin de León when he challenged Senator Feinstein. Laurel is also known for her mastery of policy in the state (so much so that she did a guest turn in our California Today newsletter in 2019 on whether the state could reduce police shootings).
Shawn Hubler, who edited Laurel at CalMatters, writes: “Laurel is a consummate pro, fair and thorough, with a deep understanding of California policymaking and the complex dynamics of the state. What I love most about her, though, is the genuine care she brings to the job of explaining this state, where she grew up and where she is raising her family. She is from here. She has skin in the game.”
Please join us in giving her a warm welcome.
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