One year ago, when I was wrapping up my last semester at the University of Virginia, I was unsure where I’d end up after graduation. After years writing for my college paper and interning in D.C., I thought to myself: Dipping my toes into journalism during a presidential election cycle sounds like it could be a fun experience for a newly minted college graduate, right?
Little did I know that just a few months later, I would be reporting alongside my colleague Andrew Egger at the “Save America March,” where I would interview pro-Trump extremists in the middle of a pandemic about their experience storming the United States Capitol as tear gas canisters exploded left and right.
It sounds like something out of a dystopian novel—and that’s what it felt like, too. And while it was a discouraging day for our country, it was the kind of invaluable reporting experience that I’m getting on a daily basis at The Dispatch. And there’s so much more ahead of me.
My time reporting for The Dispatch has helped me gain invaluable experience as I launch my journalism career. Over the last seven months, I’ve had the opportunity to cover the Million MAGA March, tossup Senate races, the Kenosha riots, and the GOP’s conspiratorial trajectory. I’ve helped contribute to Sarah Isgur’s newsletter, The Sweep, and have even made an appearance on the Dispatch Podcast. I’ve tried my hand at financial reporting and was lucky enough to have one of my articles quoted in the editorial pages of the New York Times.
Every single day I have the privilege of working alongside my role models at a forward-thinking publication with its eye on the future of the conservative movement—and the future of the media.
When I graduated from college in May of last year, I felt politically homeless. I asked my friends and family members: Given the conspiratorial trajectory of so many conservative media outlets during the Trump era, was a career in conservative journalism even worth pursuing?
It certainly is if you have the opportunity to work at The Dispatch, where our mission revolves around restoring dignity to the conservative media landscape. We want to help chart the future of the conservative movement by focusing on fact-based reporting that holds officials—of all parties and ideologies—accountable for their decisions and actions.
And we’re doing it for readers like you—and because of readers like you. Thanks to our members, I’ve spent my first year out of college doing my dream job, learning and growing in ways I’d never imagined, with opportunities and experiences that will shape how I approach journalism for years to come.
It’s not just me. We’ve got a team of young journalists producing the work so many of you have come to rely—and learning alongside me. And because of our early growth, we’ll be adding to that team in the weeks ahead.
I hope you’ll help us continue to shape the future of media by joining The Dispatch. You’ll get a bunch of top-notch newsletters in your inbox, including The Morning Dispatch, Jonah’s G-File, Sarah’s Sweep, David’s French Press, Scott Lincicome’s Capitolism, Rachael’s Dispatch Weekly, Haley’s Uphill, and Thomas Joscelyn’s Vital Interests. Oh, and don’t forget all of our fact checks.
All that for just $100 per year? It’s almost too good to be true. Join us today. I promise you won’t regret it.
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