John F. Harris

John F. Harris is the editor in chief and a cofounder of POLITICO, a publication specializing in national politics and the workings of the federal government. Since its launch in January 2007, POLITICO has become one of the country’s most-trafficked news sites and has drawn widespread attention nationally and internationally for its efforts to create a new editorial and business model to sustain robust journalism in an era of radical change for the media industry.

Harris is a native of Rochester, N.Y. and a 1985 graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, MN. He began his newspaper career in 1985 as a summer intern at the Washington Post and Harris spent the next 21 years at the paper in a succession of beats that began in Virginia politics. He covered the term of Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, the nation’s first elected black governor and six years, starting in 1995, covering the White House during Bill Clinton’s presidency. Harris’s last position at the Post was national politics editor.

He is the author in 2005 of “The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House,” a history of the 42nd president which was a New York Times bestseller and a Times notable book of the year. He is also co-author of a book on modern politics, “The Way to Win,” which he wrote with Mark Halperin.

In late 2006, Harris joined with colleague Jim VandeHei to launch POLITICO, in collaboration with publisher Robert Allbritton. The publication was recently named by “Fast Company” magazine to its annual list of America’s most innovative companies.

Harris was also recently listed in the Telegraph’s list of most influential Washington journalists and GQ’s list of the most influential people in Washington. He is a frequent guest on such shows as PBS’s “Washington Week” and “Charlie Rose Show,” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the German Marshall Fund of the United States and his alma mater, Carleton College.