I wear a few hats for the paper’s politics team: I write features about Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, I cover Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other independent candidates, and I help out on our campaign finance reporting.
Before joining the politics desk in 2023, I covered courts and criminal justice around New York City. I came to The Times in 2021 after seven years at The Wall Street Journal, where I primarily wrote about law enforcement. I was part of a team there that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for coverage of payoffs to women who said they had affairs with Donald J. Trump. I also worked on award-winning coverage of the sexual abuse scandal in U.S.A. Gymnastics.
I began my professional journalism career at The Record, in Bergen County, N.J., where I was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for my reporting on heroin addiction and the drug trade in northern New Jersey. I graduated from Harvard in 2006 with a degree in history and literature, then worked at a boarding school in Jordan.
I share the values of independence and follow the guidelines outlined in The Times’s Ethical Journalism Handbook, which details the standards of integrity that guide all Times journalists. I don’t participate in politics, nor do I make political donations. I aim to be straightforward, thorough, and unsentimental in my reporting and my writing, an approach that I think fosters independence and trust, which serves my subjects and my audience.
Email: rebecca.obrien@nytimes.com
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In every battleground state this year, there is at least one third-party or independent candidate on the ballot. The Democrats have been more openly concerned than Republicans.
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Taylor Robinson
On a swing through the Southwest, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate received a warm welcome — and had to clean up his remarks about the Electoral College.
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien
The two vice-presidential candidates crisscrossed the state on the first day of early voting, saying little of each other after their debate last week.
By Chris Cameron and Rebecca Davis O’Brien
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota suggested at fund-raisers that he backed switching to a national popular vote. His spokesman clarified that this was not the position of Kamala Harris’s campaign.
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Reid J. Epstein
Former President Donald J. Trump praised Elon Musk for bringing service to hard-hit areas. The Biden administration noted that the government was already on the case.
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien
JD Vance gave a shout-out to his wife. Tim Walz sang the praises of Minnesota. Offstage, Donald Trump got distracted.
By Shawn McCreesh and Rebecca Davis O’Brien
The remarks were the latest example of his praise for executive power and force in imposing order, this time over crimes the F.B.I. said last week were falling.
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien
This was featured in live coverage.
By Maya King and Rebecca Davis O’Brien
Vice President Kamala Harris is a sharp debater and a tireless campaigner, but televised interviews are a weakness. Her professional experience may explain why.
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien
Mr. Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, vowed to stay in the race and sought to deny the report, which also said he had defended slavery in online posts years ago.
By Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan and Nicholas Nehamas