Jessica Taylor is the Senate and Governors Editor for The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Before joining Cook, Taylor was a political reporter for National Public Radio for five years, where she covered elections and breaking news, ranging from the White House to both chambers of Congress and statewide elections. She is the first female senior author for The Almanac of American Politics in the book's 50 year history, a role she held for both the 2022 and 2024 editions.
Jessica has previously served as a senior analyst/reporter for The Rothenberg Political Report (now Inside Elections). Her quotes and analysis regularly appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and numerous other publications. She has reported on politics for several prestigious outlets over the past decade — including the NBC News Political Unit, National Journal, Politico and The Hill, where she served as campaign editor. She has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN and CNN. Her expert analysis contributed to real-time election night coverage and analysis at CBS in 2012 and for C-SPAN in 2020 and 2022.
An East Tennessee native, she graduated magna cum laude in 2007 with a B.A. in political science from Furman University in South Carolina.
Updated: August 2023
Photo Credit: Kathryn Hamm
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