Election nights in a newsroom are electric.
I was 22 years old when I covered my first one as a professional reporter in 2014. I worked at the Janesville Gazette, and I’m forever thankful I can say I helped put out a newspaper covering local races on election night. That was back when newspaper bullpens still buzzed with excitement and activity from a room filled with editors, designers and reporters. We had so many reporters that I was only covering one local race: the Republican nomination for Wisconsin’s 43rd District Assembly. I remember calling two first-time candidates around midnight — and the voices on both sides of those phone calls were a bit nervous.
That night was the start and end of my official political reporting career, but it forever changed the way I think about elections. The big thing being: Local news operations, back then and still today, put in the work to disseminate information to voting citizens in understandable and timely ways. Candidate Q&As, live updates from the polls, key issue explainers and thoughtful analysis provide meaningful resources voters need to make informed decisions. I’ve thought about that Janesville Gazette newsroom on every election night since, and each year my appreciation and awareness grows — that work was so important.