A few decades ago, your options for election coverage could be counted on one hand.
Today, the news landscape is overflowing with choices.
There’s TV, of course, with local and national options. Print is hanging on in some areas, though results might miss the deadline. Online news sites of all levels of repute are available. And, speaking of ill repute, you could turn to social media, where users often offer more spin than substance.
We reached out to journalists from across the country — those who know where to find credible information — to find out where they’ll turn this election night. Here’s what they had to say, lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Lisa Rowan, education reporter at Cardinal News
Twitter used to be my go-to for election coverage as reporters would post their latest articles and share those written by others, but the platform doesn’t have the same hustle-and-bustle feeling it had one or two presidential races ago.
My primary source for election news (beyond the regional coverage at my own publication, of course) has been Radio IQ, our NPR affiliate in Roanoke and the New River Valley of Virginia. It’s my “everything” news hub, from local reports to statewide spots from Virginia Public Media reporters Michael Pope and Brad Kutner, to national NPR programming. I’ll listen in the car and sometimes play the station live from my desktop browser.
The Press Box from The Ringer has become regular listening for its politics + media + sports mashup. There’s something about the delivery of Sean Rameswaram and Noel King on “Today, Explained” from Vox that makes a trip to the gym go faster.
On election night, I have to be honest: NBC News will be on at my house. I am very loyal to Steve Kornacki and the Big Board. I’ll still be scrolling Twitter/X, checking the Associated Press website, and rapidly refreshing the Virginia Department of Elections map. But I’m a real nerd for the Big Board.
Nolan D. McCaskill, politics reporter at The Dallas Morning News
As a Los Angeles Times congressional reporter, I spent election night in 2022 at California Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s watch party as the former Republican leader waited for a red wave that never materialized. In previous election cycles as a reporter at Politico, I remember alternating between John King’s mastery of CNN’s “magic wall” and a Twitter list of some of the nation’s top congressional and national political reporters.
This year will be different. As an Austin-based politics reporter at The Dallas Morning News, I’ll be updating our North Texas audience on the results of a battleground state House district and a half-dozen judicial races.
I now have a Texas politics list on X with colleagues from The Dallas Morning News, The Texas Tribune, The Texan, Texas Monthly, Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and others that I’m sure I’ll glance at throughout the night (when I’m not working on something urgent or responding to birthday messages). But I imagine much of my night will be spent on the Texas secretary of state’s website watching the results come in, reaching out to candidates and campaigns and updating my stories accordingly. Then it’s on to day-after stories.
Karen Gadbois, co-founder and director of The Lens in New Orleans
Twitter for various reasons. Reverse trolling :). I don’t comment. I just watch the propaganda. My partner will watch every news channel with a multi-screen TV. We are going to watch in separate rooms because it makes me anxious.
Melissa Gomez, enterprise reporter at the Los Angeles Times
I’ll be following the Los Angeles Times national political reporters, including my colleagues Seema Mehta, Faith Pinho, Jim Rainey and Kevin Rector, who have been covering the presidential campaign. My former colleague Jack Herrera has also been doing fantastic coverage in covering stories that shed light on the Latino vote. They’ve all done fantastic work in covering voters and the election, I’ll be looking to all of them for analysis as the votes roll in.
On election night, I’ll almost certainly have X/Twitter open, and I’ll be tracking a couple highly contested congressional district races in California myself. While I haven’t been covering the presidential campaign, there are a couple races in Central California, which I cover, that could shape the U.S. House.
But these races might take some time to get called as the votes roll in, so I might have the TV on, and squeeze a workout in if results are looking like they’ll take a while!
Omar Gallaga, freelance technology and entertainment writer
My Election Day watching will be a mix of flipping between broadcast networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) and CNN plus frantically refreshing sites including The Washington Post, The New York Times and Politico, plus the Austin American-Statesman for state results. On social media, I tend to get a lot of alerts from the news outlets I follow on Instagram and even though it’s often a cesspool, I still find Twitter (ugh, I mean “X”) to be useful when news breaks or just to see what the most up-to-the-minute news memes are. I’m sure my group chats will be sharing lots of Reels and TikToks as they happen as well.
Rich Lord, managing editor of PublicSource
At PublicSource in Pittsburgh, we are responding to our apparent position at or near the center of the political universe largely by deploying our team and relying on AP for results and calls. As I write this, half of our 16-person staff is working the election-eve appearances of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris this evening. We will be out in force over two shifts tomorrow, in the field, at court, at the election warehouse where ballots are tallied and at the post-election events. And we are set up to receive the AP feed, plus to grab AP stories on the calls of Pennsylvania and/or the country. We’re watching a variety of social media feeds, too, and have contact info handy for a number of election integrity resources.
Kaylee Lindenmuth, founder of The Shenandoah Sentinel
69 WFMZ, ABC27 WHTM and Spotlight PA primarily. Those outlets should have the statewide and national races pretty well covered. (Disclaimer, I work as a digital producer for WHTM, but I followed the station for statewide politics before I applied.) For the races I’m watching closest — Pennsylvania state representative for the 116th and 123rd, Pennsylvania state senator for the 29th, and U.S. representative for the 9th — those are the races I’m working for the Sentinel.
All of the outlets I’ll be following will be on the web — watching the livestream online or keeping checks on their website. Probably going to keep an eye on certain reporters and outlets on Twitter/X — Dennis Owens, Justin Sweitzer and Stephen Caruso come to mind as specific reporters.
Ryan Sorrell, Founder & Executive Editor of The Kansas City Defender
News outlets
- Breakthrough News (they are providing live coverage via YouTube)
- Democracy Now (I believe also providing live coverage)
Individual reporters or political analysts
I will likely also be switching through the traditional corporate media just to see their analysis and latest numbers (MSNBC, CNN, Fox News), but I’ll be on the independent media for most of the time.
Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, managing editor for politics, White House and storytelling at USA Today
In the newsroom, we will have various networks going all day: CNN, Fox and as the count begins NBC. We will also monitor CBS and ABC.
We will be reading wires including Reuters and leveraging AP Race Call. But my focus will be staying in touch with the reporters and editors we have across the USA TODAY Network across the country — especially in swing states. Our reporters are the ones doing the critical local reporting and phoning in dispatches.
I’m talking to Phillip Bailey, Trevor Hughes, Aysha Bagchi, Erin Mansfield, Sarah Wire, Will Carless, Terry Collins, Zac Anderson, Francesca Chambers and others — counting on them on the ground to deliver trusted news and information to us first.
Anayeli Ruiz, reporter for KHOU
I will be following the local elections. I will cover the Democratic candidate running for the Harris County district attorney’s office, Sean Teare.
I will be keeping a close eye on CBS Network and the AP I will be checking Twitter and Facebook. Those platforms seem to be the fastest way to put out info. I will also keep a close eye on their websites. I am not keeping a close eye on any specific reporters. … Most networks typically retweet a specific reporter if it’s important or repost important info from reporters on social media.
