Abby Phillip
National Political Reporter
The Washington Post
Harvard University, B.A.
Abby Phillip is a national political reporter for the Washington Post. During the 2016 election, Phillip is focused on the Democrats and Hillary Clinton’s presidential run. Before joining the Post’s political beat, Phillip was a general assignment reporter there. Phillip gained considerable experience covering politics while working as a reporter and blogger for the political website, POLITICO where her beat included covering campaign finance and lobbying.
“I definitely feel like I know a little bit about a lot, although when I first started in journalism, very early on in my career, I spent a lot of time writing about campaign finance and politics, so I feel like I have a very specialized interest and knowledge in that very small part of political journalism. So I’m very often drawn to those stories,” Phillip said in a Post video.
The Path
While studying at Harvard, Phillip had initially intended on becoming a heart surgeon, but discovered she hated the lab. But she also found that she loved talking to people. “My first journalism experience was going to Mississippi for a service trip where I had to write a blog throughout the entire thing, and I just really loved that experience. And I came back, and I knew that was what I had to do,” Phillip said.
Phillip also served as an ABC News Fellow working out of ABC’s New York office. Following the fellowship, she joined the network’s Washington, D.C. bureau to work as a digital reporter covering politics. While at ABC News she produced stories for This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Nightline, and ABCNews.com. “The stories that are the most interesting are the ones that your friends are talking about, the things where people are saying, ‘what’s going on?…and you can dig a little deeper,” Phillip said.
@abbydphillip tweeted
A black woman at Clinton town hall says her biggest concern for her 17-yo autistic son is now what would happen if he is pulled over by cop.
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) January 3, 2016
