Renewing our commitment to political and investigative journalism

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The Texas Tribune is built on the idea that Texas will be a better place if its everyday residents understand the motivations, actions and influences of the people running this state. When I became editor-in-chief last fall, I knew that bolstering the coverage of our state politics and our investigative work would be a key part of the job. Texans need thorough, fair and revelatory coverage of the impact of politics on their lives. They need keen analysis and vital watchdog work. That’s why I’m excited to announce a series of changes to our reporting teams that have been made in recent months. These moves will help us build on our reputation as the state's go-to source for news on Texas government and politics.

As of this last month, Eleanor Klibanoff and Alejandro Serrano have taken over new roles as politics reporters. Both are familiar names to Tribune readers. Eleanor has been a star on our health team since 2021, after a distinguished start to her career in public radio in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. She’s mixed thorough beat reporting with incisive analysis and beautiful writing. And that’s not just me saying it: Last year, the Texas Managing Editors organization recognized her as the Star Reporter working in Texas. Alejandro, meanwhile, is a versatile and dogged journalist who has worked as a general assignment reporter for the Tribune since 2022. His range of knowledge and expertise built working in Texas will be vital to our team. He covered Houston ISD for the Houston Chronicle. He spent six months covering immigration and border security in Eagle Pass for the Tribune. He’s one of those reporters who never stops digging until he’s gotten to the heart of a story.

Eleanor and Alejandro join Kayla Guo, who started as a politics reporter for the Tribune in the middle of the legislative session. Before joining the Tribune, she covered Congress for The New York Times as a reporting fellow based in Washington, D.C. She has already established herself as a rising star in Austin, an energetic reporter who has her finger on the pulse of Texas politics.

But of course, Texas politics has influence beyond the state Capitol. That’s why I’m thrilled to announce Gabby Birenbaum as our new Washington correspondent. Gabby joins us from The Nevada Independent — a similarly focused nonprofit newsroom — where she is already based in Washington. There, Gabby has been covering the nexus of federal government and Nevada politics. She's been watchdogging her delegation and helping her state's readers understand the local impact of complex policy being passed in Congress. She started for the Tribune on Monday.

Gabby, Kayla, Alejandro and Eleanor join our politics writer Renzo Downey, who has led production of our premium politics newsletter, The Blast, and turned it into a must-read chronicle of the daily political developments in the state. This dynamic team will be led by a familiar face: Jasper Scherer is our new politics editor. During his time at the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Tribune, Jasper planted a flag as one of the leading politics reporters in the state. He has impeccable sourcing and is a talented writer. If you wanted to go beyond what was happening in Austin to understand how and why, there was no better person to read. His news judgement, his evenhandedness and his kind demeanor all made us certain that he was the right person to take over as editor of the team.

Our prior politics editor, Rebekah Allen, hasn’t gone far, however. Late last year, I named her managing editor of enterprise and politics. Since then she has overseen our politics coverage, while also being tasked with elevating our most ambitious journalism: investigations, narratives and other projects. For Rebekah, ambition is the key word. In my career, I can’t think of any other person I’ve worked with who surpasses her ability to push journalists to do their best work, ensuring that every reporting angle has been pursued.

Coinciding with Rebekah’s move, we also promoted two of our top reporters to a new position of enterprise and investigative reporter: Kate McGee and Zach Despart. Kate covered higher education for us since 2020, work that won her a national Education Writers Association award for beat reporting and made her a finalist for the prestigious Livingston Award. There are few reporters more tenacious than her. Zach was previously a politics reporter for the Tribune and established himself as an intelligent and skilled investigator. He was a leader on our team coverage of the failed police response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, work that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The fruits of their promotions are already on display. Kate’s brilliantly written and reported story about a Republican megadonor was one of the most talked about articles of this year’s legislative session. Zach’s investigation into debt collection tactics by local governments in the state generated outrage from politicos on both sides of the aisle. These two reporters will boost our capacity to do meaningful, lasting stories with high impact — work that's already driven by our beat reporters and our joint investigative unit with ProPublica.

Great investigative journalism won’t have an impact unless it reaches an audience, however. And that’s why we hired Jasmine Aguilera earlier this year as an audience and collaboration strategist. Jasmine will be a key cog in our joint unit with ProPublica, ensuring that our most ambitious journalism reaches the people who need it most. And she's helping our team leadership coordinate with the five newsrooms that ProPublica and the Tribune are partnering with this year to investigate power — who holds it and who’s wielding it in Texas.

While that politics, enterprise and investigative work will be managed by Rebekah, the other pillars of our news reporting— policy coverage and breaking news — are being managed by Brandon Formby, our managing editor for news and state affairs. If you’ve noticed that our coverage so far this year has been particularly urgent, focused and impactful, Brandon has played a huge role in that. He’s skilled at activating the newsroom around major news events and pushing our journalists to think creatively about serving the needs of our audience. He took over the job after a distinguished stint as our news editor. Brandon has been building a brilliant team, too, and we’ll have more to share about that soon.

Brandon and Rebekah will work alongside other established newsroom leaders, such as Audience Director Matt Adams, Director of Photography Pu Ying Huang, Data Visuals Editor Chris Essig and Senior Managing Editor Ayan Mittra, who is overseeing our expansion into local news. I’m thrilled about how this immensely talented and thoughtful team has shaped up as we continue to elevate our journalism and our impact on this state that we care so much about. So far this year, our reporters have worked long hours telling the story of how power is being wielded in this state and the impact it will have on ordinary people. The work is just getting started. If you value it, I hope you’ll support us.

— Matthew Watkins, editor-in-chief

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