Charlie Cook

Kevin P. Reilly Sr. Endowed Chair in Political Communication | 240 Hodges Hall | charlescook@lsu.edu

Biography

Charlie Cook is the founder of The Cook Political Report, as well as a political analyst and columnist for National Journal.

In 1984, at the age of 30, Cook started The Cook Political Report, an independent, non-partisan newsletter that:

• The New York Times once said was “a newsletter that both parties regard as authoritative.”
• Then-CBS Evening News Anchor Bob Schieffer has called, “the bible of the political community.”
• Al Hunt, then Washington Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, has referred to Cook as “the Picasso of election analysis.”

Cook was a co-author of the 2020, 2022 and 2024 editions of “The Almanac of American Politics.” He has appeared many times on ABC’s “World News Tonight” and “This Week,” “The CBS Evening News,” “The NBC Nightly News,” on CNN’s “Inside Politics,” and, after being recruited by Tim Russert in the early 1990s, over a dozen times on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” now the longest running show on television.

Over the years, Cook served as an Election Night analyst for CBS News, CNN and NBC News, including many election nights on Decision Desk in New York.

In 2010, Cook was the co-recipient of the American Political Science Association’s prestigious Carey McWilliams Award to honor “a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics."

In 2013, Cook served as a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.