Blake Hounshell reportedly dies of depression

A political writer for the New York Times passed away at the age of 44 “after a long and valiant fight with depression,” according to his family.

Before joining The Times last year, Blake Hounshell was a senior editor at Foreign Policy magazine and Politico. He went unexpectedly on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., leaving behind his wife, Sandy, and two children.

According to a police officer, his death will be looked at as a suicide.

Hounshell began working at The Times in 2021, and according to executive editor Joseph Kahn in a letter to employees, he “soon established himself as our top politics newsletter writer and a superb observer of our country’s political environment.”

We’ve lost a wonderful colleague, and our team has suffered a terrible loss.

Although he was raised in Delaware and Pittsburgh as a child, he was born in California in 1978 and earned his Yale degree in 2002.

After studying Arabic in Cairo, he began his career in media. For his coverage of the Arab Spring, he was a finalist for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists.

He was the managing editor at Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2013, where he led the publication’s transition to the online era.

After that, Hounshell worked for eight years, serving in a variety of top positions and as editor in chief of the magazine he founded.

He was recruited by The Times to launch a newsletter, a growingly popular format with which he had already gained expertise at Foreign Policy and Politico.

The Times said when it hired him that it was “making big investments in newsletter talent.”

“Now, with a firehose of political news for our readers to understand each day, we’re turning to an expert in both newsletters and political coverage, Blake Hounshell,” the statement said.

Hounshell examined the death penalty in California and the political strain the issue was putting on its governor Gavin Newsom in his most recent On Politics newsletter, which was released on Monday. He wrote on the Republican Party’s difficulties attracting younger voters on Friday.

“It is with tremendous sadness that we must notify you that Blake passed away unexpectedly this morning after a long and valiant struggle with depression. His family issued a statement asking for privacy and respect at this difficult time on behalf of the couple’s two children and wife, Sandy.

Politicians and other media alike expressed astonishment and grief at his passing.

The newsroom at @politico is in agony. John Harris, a founding editor of Politico, remarked on Twitter that Blake Hounshell “had a brilliant intellect, full of fresh thoughts on a huge variety of things.”

He had an exciting capacity to see patterns and inconsistencies in the news. He was a genuinely idealistic and inquisitive individual.

After having a stroke in May, newly elected Democratic senator from Pennsylvania John Fetterman remembered an interview with Hounshell.

Blake Hounshell, a fellow stroke survivor, was the subject of one of my first interviews after returning to the campaign trail and having trouble speaking, Fetterman wrote on Tuesday.

Conservative broadcaster and political analyst Scott Jennings claimed to have recently talked with Hounshell on a report regarding the Kentucky governor’s race.

He commented, “Always thought he was a terrific reporter and a kind man.” It serves as a reminder that you never really know what individuals are going through on the inside.

Hounshell could “see all these tweets of his colleagues who feel obliged to him for where they are,” The Times’ congressional writer Annie Karni said in a tweet.