Mara Liasson
Mara Liasson is the senior national political correspondent for NPR. Her reports can be heard regularly on NPR's award-winning newsmagazine programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Liasson provides extensive coverage of politics and policy from Washington, DC — focusing on the White House and Congress — and also reports on political trends beyond the Beltway.
Each election year, Liasson provides key coverage of the candidates and issues in both presidential and congressional races. During her tenure she has covered nine presidential elections — in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024. Prior to her current assignment, Liasson was NPR's White House correspondent for all eight years of the Clinton administration. She has won the White House Correspondents' Association's Merriman Smith Award for daily news coverage in 1994, 1995, and again in 1997. From 1989-1992 Liasson was NPR's congressional correspondent.
Liasson joined NPR in 1985 as a general assignment reporter and newscaster. From September 1988 to June 1989 she took a leave of absence from NPR to attend Columbia University in New York as a recipient of a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism.
Prior to joining NPR, Liasson was a freelance radio and television reporter in San Francisco. She was also managing editor and anchor of California Edition, a California Public Radio nightly news program, and a print journalist for The Vineyard Gazette in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Liasson is a graduate of Brown University where she earned a bachelor's degree in American history.
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Every election, there is a crucial sliver of voters who help determine which candidates win. Here are five takeaways from a year of listening to voters who backed Biden in 2020 and then Trump in 2024. -
As Election Day approaches, some key swing voters are talking about casting their ballots to check President Trump. That's one takeaway from new focus groups.
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President Trump has a big week on the international stage, from the United Nations General Assembly to hosting the Chinese president at the White House.
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The Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates has broader political and economic implications, with affordability top of mind for voters ahead of the midterms.
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Swing voters in Michigan are sour on the economy — and President Trump's handling of it. That's one takeaway from a pair of focus groups this week.
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A democratic socialist narrowly lost Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary. But conversations with swing voters suggest voters may be more open to the "socialist" label than expected.
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Scandals have always been a part of politics but the way politicians handle them has changed.
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A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the 14th amendment and birthright citizenship, rejecting President Trump's executive order.
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Swing voters from Wisconsin share their thoughts on the Iran war, high prices and how they're feeling about America at its 250th year marker.
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President Trump is celebrating his 80th birthday with a UFC fight on the White House lawn. A closer look a the political message behind the event and why some Republicans are uneasy.
