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Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Claire Thornton

Claire Thornton, 21, is a rising senior at Princeton University, where she is Head News Editor for The Daily Princetonian. She is majoring in English, with minors in journalism, American studies, and Slavic studies. Her independent research within Princeton’s English department focuses on Western news coverage of the Russian state. In other words, she should have majored in comparative literature.

This past spring, Claire’s work for The Daily Princetonian involved covering a course that was cancelled after the professor used the n-word, campus workers’ rights, a police stand-off that left one man dead, and special coverage of co-education at Princeton. Claire is known for her bluntness and candor in the newsroom, according to her assistant news editors.

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Claire is a Texan at heart. But she has also embraced the East Coast since starting college at Princeton. She was also lucky enough to study in London with Princeton’s English department in the fall of 2017.

Working at WLRN is Claire’s first time writing for a news organization other than The Daily Princetonian. Last summer, she worked as an artistic operations intern for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas and Opera Philadelphia. Having never been to Florida before, she is excited to report on Miami with fresh eyes. She’s also looking forward to the Cuban food, of course.