Jamelle Bouie

Bouie was born and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He attended Floyd E. Kellam High School, from which he was graduated in 2005.[4] He graduated from the University of Virginia in 2009,[1] with a bachelor of arts degree and majors in political and social thought and government.[5][6] While there, he began blogging, which eventually led to interest in a career in journalism.[7]

Bouie previously lived and worked in Washington, D.C., and as of 2021, he is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.[7]

Bouie was awarded a writing fellowship for The American Prospect in 2010. He was awarded a Knobler Fellowship at the Nation Institute by The Nation in 2012.[8] Bouie became a staff writer for The Daily Beast in 2013,[9] writing about national politics.[10] He moved to Slate as a chief political correspondent in 2014.[11][12] He joined The New York Times as a columnist in 2019.[13][14]

Bouie was a contributor to Barack Obama and the New America: The 2012 Election and the Changing Face of Politics,[15] a 2013 book edited by political scientist Larry Sabato.[16]

Bouie has been a political analyst on CBS News since 2015.[17][13] He frequently appears on Face the Nation,[18][19][20] the network's Sunday morning show,[21] and contributed to the network's 2016 election night coverage.[22]

Bouie writes articles focusing on history, public policy, and national politics, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[23] He also writes about entertainment, such as science fiction, comics, and film.[24] He has reviewed breakfast cereal for Serious Eats.

Bouie has written extensively on racial politics,[6][25][26] including slavery in the United States and the American Civil War,[27] the killing of Trayvon Martin,[28][29] the Ferguson unrest,[30] the Charleston church shooting,[31] and the Black Lives Matter movement.[32] His writing on racial and national politics subjects is often quoted by other journalists.[33][34][35]

Shortly after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, he wrote an article for Slate arguing that there was "no such thing as a good Trump voter." Several days earlier, he compared Trump voters to the "angry, recalcitrant whites" who resisted the Reconstruction era after the American Civil War.[36][37] He has criticized the media for an unwillingness to label racism in the United States as "racist," opting instead for terms such as "racial" and "racially charged."[38] He also criticized the media for its "horse-race" coverage of the 2016 presidential election.[39] He said the NPR interview between Noel King and Jason Kessler was "absolute journalistic malpractice."[40]

The New York Times announced that Bouie would join their lineup of opinion columnists in January 2019. The newspaper stated that Bouie has "consistently driven understanding of politics deeper by bringing not only a reporter’s eye but also a historian’s perspective and sense of proportion to bear on the news. His interests . . . range well beyond politics to the visual arts, food and movies."[41] On January 24, 2023 he wrote of the need to examine the motivation behind the focus of speeches being given in the national campaign of Florida Governor DeSantis. Bouie suggests that his prior legislative history provides deeper understanding of why he is controlling a narrative intended to attract the voting population he would like to draw away from former President Trump as they approach their party nomination for the 2024 presidential election. He provides journalistic approaches that can redirect the narrative toward topics of more concern to voters who would be adversely affected by his positions on topics not being discussed.[42]

Bouie is also an accomplished photographer.[43] His first public photography exhibition, in 2019, focused on towns in Oklahoma founded by former slaves in the nineteenth century.[44] He shoots using both digital and film cameras.[45]

With John Ganz he hosts the Unclear and Present Danger podcast covering the political thriller films of the 1990s and exploring what they say about America's perception of the world in that era.[46]

In 2012, Bouie was chosen for The Root's Root Top 100.[47] The site stated that "his is a strong, influential and necessary voice during the 2012 election season and beyond".

Forbes recognized Bouie in its "30 Under 30 – Media" list in 2015, saying that "he became a leading voice on the Ferguson story".[48]

• Official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Jamelle Bouie on Twitter