Dear Friend,

I joined The New Republic in the spring of 2019 to cover my eleventh presidential race, a string that began decades earlier when I watched a guy named George Bush do push-ups in Iowa to prove that he was “up for the Eighties” and Ronald Reagan wasn’t. I had written for The New Republic in its prior incarnations, particularly during the 2012 campaign. What attracted me to the reborn New Republic was the chance to write about politics for a publication that values reporting, strong writing, and original points of view. In covering the 2020 campaign, I have the added benefit of having shadowed Joe Biden since his first abortive presidential bid in 1987. As a result, I see the totality of his career arc and can make judgments about Biden that go beyond the surface analyses of reporters who only know him as a vice president or a candidate. That’s why I am so proud of my Biden cover story for The New Republic in January and my September piece on how Biden would govern as president.

—Walter Shapiro, staff writer

Walter Shapiro is a lecturer in political science at Yale and a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. He has covered prior election campaigns for such publications as USA Today, Time, Newsweek and The Washington Post. He is the author of two books: One-Car Caravan, on the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, and Hustling Hitler (2016), the story of his con-man great-uncle—a vaudeville agent, race-fixer and jewel-smuggler who fleeced the Nazis on a 1935 nickel deal.

Commentary like Walter’s is what makes TNR more necessary than ever, and we depend on you to ensure voices like his—and other independent journalists at TNR—have an outlet.