Stephen Fowler is a political reporter for NPR’s Washington Desk, covering the restructuring of the federal government and the future of the Democratic and Republican parties in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s return to office. This newsletter pulls back the curtain on how his journalism gets made and how politics actually works — the reporting process, the sourcing, and the mechanics behind the political stories he covers for NPR.
Fowler joined NPR in 2024, reporting from the presidential campaign trail across the country while based in the South. His coverage focuses on how both major parties are being rebuilt from the inside: the Republican Party’s realignment under Trump, and what remains of the Democratic Party’s coalition heading into the next election cycle.
Before NPR, Fowler spent more than seven years as the political reporter for Georgia Public Broadcasting, where he also hosted the podcast Battleground: Ballot Box, covering the legal fallout of the 2020 presidential election, the transformation of the Republican Party, and Georgia’s rise as a pivotal state in American politics. His reporting has appeared in the Center for Public Integrity, the Columbia Journalism Review, PBS NewsHour, and ProPublica.
Fowler is a graduate of Emory University, where he earned a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, served as Executive Digital Editor of The Emory Wheel, and was part of the inaugural cohort of the Georgia News Lab, a yearlong investigative journalism training program for college students.
For tips, questions, or encrypted messages, Fowler can be reached at stphnfwlr.25 on Signal.
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