Don Gonyea
You're most likely to find NPR's Don Gonyea on the road, in some battleground state looking for voters to sit with him at the local lunch spot, the VFW or union hall, at a campaign rally, or at their kitchen tables to tell him what's on their minds. Through countless such conversations over the course of the year, he gets a ground-level view of American elections. Gonyea is NPR's National Political Correspondent, a position he has held since 2010. His reports can be heard on all NPR News programs and at NPR.org. To hear his sound-rich stories is akin to riding in the passenger seat of his rental car, traveling through Iowa or South Carolina or Michigan or wherever, right along with him.
Gonyea has been covering politics full-time for NPR since the 2000 presidential campaign. That's the year he chronicled a controversial election and the ensuing legal recount battle in Florida that awarded the White House to George W. Bush. Gonyea was named NPR White House Correspondent that year and subsequently covered the entirety of the Bush presidency, from 2001-2008. He was at the White House on the morning of Sept. 11, providing live reports following the evacuation of the building.
As White House correspondent, Gonyea covered the Bush administration's prosecution of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. During the 2004 campaign, he traveled with both Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry. He has served as co-anchor of NPR's election night coverage, and in 2008 Gonyea was the lead reporter covering Barack Obama's presidential campaign for NPR, from the Iowa caucuses to victory night in Chicago.
Gonyea has filed stories from around the globe, including Moscow, Beijing, London, Islamabad, Doha, Budapest, Seoul, San Salvador, and Hanoi. He attended President Bush's first-ever meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Slovenia in 2001, as well as subsequent — and at times testy — meetings between the two leaders in St. Petersburg, Shanghai, and Bratislava. He also covered Obama's first trip overseas as president. During the 2016 election, he traveled extensively with both GOP nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. His coverage of union members and white working class voters in the Midwest also gave early insight into how candidate Trump would tap into economic anxiety to win the presidency.
In 1986, Gonyea got his start at NPR reporting from Michigan on labor unions and the automobile industry. His first public radio job was at station WDET in Detroit. He has spent countless hours on picket lines and in union halls covering strikes at the major US auto companies, along with other labor disputes. Gonyea also reported on the development of alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles, Dr. Jack Kevorkian's assisted-suicide crusade, and the 1999 closing of Detroit's classic Tiger Stadium.
He serves as a fill-in host on NPR news magazines Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, and Weekend All Things Considered.
Over the years, Gonyea has contributed to PBS's NewsHour, the BBC, CBC, AP Radio, and the Columbia Journalism Review. He periodically teaches college journalism courses.
Gonyea has won numerous national and state awards for his reporting. He was part of the team that earned NPR a 2000 George Foster Peabody Award for the All Things Considered series "Lost & Found Sound."
A native of Monroe, Michigan, Gonyea is an honors graduate of Michigan State University.
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Working as a DJ at his local radio station in 1981, NPR's Don Gonyea snagged the interview of a lifetime. Johnny Cash stopped to answer questions before taking the stage at the Monroe County Fair in Michigan. -
While the movement loses popularity nationwide, it's still a force in the GOP. When it comes to fiscal cliff negotiations, however, Tea Party members in Congress seem resigned to the fact that any eventual deal will be one they won't like. That doesn't mean the Tea Party spirit can't be recharged.
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Neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney seems to be winning the hearts of blue-collar voters in this part of the state. Economically, says one analyst, many residents here should be voting Democratic; but their social conservatism clouds the picture. -
President Obama won 2 out of 3 Hispanic votes in 2008, and Democrats this election season have a growing advantage with Hispanics. But Republicans and likely nominee Mitt Romney say they have a strong case to make for those votes based on the economy, and some are trying to shift focus away from Romney's stance on immigration. -
The baby boomer generation came into politics with a liberal challenge to the establishment, but that hasn't made it a reliably Democratic voting block. This middle-aged group is deeply dissatisfied with the economy and frustrated with the president.
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In last month's election, Latino voters again sided solidly with the Democrats. It's a trend that's increasingly worrisome to the GOP. Among several outreach efforts, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has started a website, The Americano, which hosted a forum this week. -
In last month's election, Latino voters again sided solidly with the Democrats. It's a trend that's increasingly worrisome to the GOP. Among several outreach efforts, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has started a website, The Americano, which hosted a forum this week.
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This is it, or so the White House claims: closing arguments on President Obama's effort to overhaul the nation's health care system. Obama asked Congress for a final vote this month, and to persuade Democrats to stick with him he was in suburban Philadelphia on Monday making his case.
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In his first year in office, President Obama did better even than legendary arm-twister Lyndon Johnson in winning congressional votes on issues where he took a position, a Congressional Quarterly study finds. That was while Obama tackled two wars, an economic crisis and battles over health care.
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President Obama used a prime-time news conference Wednesday night to try to win support for major changes to the nation's health care system. With polls showing the public wary of his handling of the issue, Obama tried to allay the concerns of those who now have health insurance and fear their coverage will be reduced.
