Anita Kumar

Anita Kumar serves as senior managing editor, standards, ethics and content of POLITICO, working across the newsroom to produce ambitious journalism from inception to publication and playing a leading role in crafting and editing the daily report.

She became POLITICO’s first-ever senior editor, standards & ethics in 2021, overseeing standards, style and training with a focus on accuracy, fairness, clarity and nonpartisanship. In 2023, she was named senior managing editor, standards, ethics and content, taking on a greater role in daily coverage and overseeing the production and copyediting and diversity and culture teams.

A longtime reporter, Kumar covered the White House for nine years, reporting on Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Barack Obama at POLITICO and, before that, for McClatchy’s chain of newspapers.

She joined POLITICO as White House correspondent and associate editor in 2019, helping organize and guide coverage for the White House team and serving as an in-house expert on the institution of the presidency. She reported on Trump’s reelection campaign in 2020, Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016 and Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012.

Prior to that, she worked at The Washington Post, writing about Virginia politics, and The Tampa Bay Times, writing about local, state and federal government both in Florida and Washington. She started her career at The News & Advance in Lynchburg, Va., and worked briefly at The News & Record in Greensboro, N.C.

Kumar serves on the Poynter Institute’s National Advisory Board and the National Press Club Journalism Institute Board. She has served on the boards of the White House Correspondents’ Association, the Regional Reporters Association and the Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association.

A native Virginian, Kumar grew up in Charlottesville and attended the University of Virginia, where she was managing editor of the Cavalier Daily. She appears regularly on television and radio.