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Alec MacGillis

Alec MacGillis is a reporter for ProPublica. In recent years, his coverage has focused on gun violence, economic inequality and the pandemic-era schools crisis.

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Alec MacGillis is a reporter for ProPublica, focusing on gun violence, economic inequality and the pandemic-era schools crisis. MacGillis previously reported for The New Republic, The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun. He won the 2016 Robin Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, the 2017 Polk Award for National Reporting and the 2017 Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, New York and The New York Times Magazine, among other publications.

A resident of Baltimore, MacGillis is the author of “The Cynic,” a 2014 biography of Sen. Mitch McConnell, and “Fulfillment: America in the Shadow of Amazon.”

The Breakdown

The Sheriff Gets His Man

A mustachioed Ohio lawman who rails against undocumented immigrants is suddenly less of a fringe figure. He embodies the changing of the GOP guard in the heartland.

The Breakdown

Revenge of the Forgotten Class

Hillary Clinton and the Democrats were playing with fire when they effectively wrote off white workers in the small towns and cities of the Rust Belt.

The Breakdown

Would Wall Street Have a Place in a Clinton Administration?

If Clinton is elected she could face a fight with her party’s most liberal wing over potential top hires like Tom Nides, who has spent his career straddling government and high finance.

The Breakdown

The Democrats’ Bad Map

Hillary Clinton looks increasingly likely to win the White House, but her party faces a big obstacle to success in congressional races — Democrats are sorting themselves into geographic clusters where many of their votes have been rendered all but superfluous.

The Breakdown

Fact-checking Trump and Clinton on the Billionaire’s Tax Break

When the presidential candidates vowed on Sunday to eliminate the “carried-interest” loophole, they left out some important context.

How Washington Blew Its Best Chance to Fix Immigration

Three years ago, the Republican-led House was close to reaching a compromise on immigration. This is the inside story of what went wrong.

The Breakdown

The Surreal Politics of a Billionaire’s Tax Loophole

Hillary Clinton has gone even further than Donald Trump in promising to kill a tax break that benefits some of the wealthiest people in finance. So why are private equity titans giving all their campaign money to Clinton?

The Breakdown

‘White Trash’ — The Original Underclass

Waste people. Rubbish. Clay-eaters. Hillbillies. Two new books that reckon with the long, bleak history of the country’s white poor suggest their plight shouldn’t have caught the rest of the country off guard.

The Great Republican Crack-up

Dayton was once a bastion of the GOP establishment. The story of how the city changed helps explain the rise of Donald Trump.

How Philanthropist David Rubenstein Helped Save a Tax Break Billionaires Love

A private equity mogul lauded for patriotic donations has quietly worked to protect one source of his wealth — the carried-interest loophole.