#MediaMonday – Jen Fifield
Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from Jen Fifield, the Arizona reporter for Votebeat, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to local, nonpartisan coverage of election administration and voting access.
Jen, time to share:
I’m excited to be in my first month at Votebeat.org covering elections and voting full-time. I’m the first local reporter as part of the organization’s expansion into multiple states this year. We hope to fill the gaps in local reporting and write important stories about elections and voting that people aren’t telling. Phoenix is my hometown, so it’s exciting to be part of this for the community where I grew up and am now raising a family.
It’s been quite a year. Before taking the job at Votebeat, I covered Phoenix and Maricopa County for The Arizona Republic. That put me front and center as the Arizona Senate took on its months-long review of the county’s 2020 election. I’m proud of the work I did telling the truth about the election and dispelling misinformation.
After graduating from Arizona State University’s Cronkite School in 2009, I moved to the Washington, D.C. area where I started out at local newspapers in Maryland, covering politics and government. I then covered trends in state policy across the U.S. for Stateline, a nonprofit journalism news service run by The Pew Charitable Trusts. I have always loved to dig into the wonkier side of local government and have won multiple awards for stories focused on government accountability.
In 2018, my husband and I decided we wanted to move home to be close to family, so I took a job at The Republic. We love our Arizona life and I can’t imagine raising a family anywhere else. We are outdoorsy, so love to hike the Valley’s beautiful mountains and camp up north. We are cheap so don’t eat out a lot, but when we do it’s most likely Spinato’s or Valle Luna. I’m just really glad to be back in a state with excellent breakfast burritos and chorizo. If you want to make me happy, send me some recommendations.
As I start in my new job I really want to meet new smart people, especially outside of Maricopa County. I hope my reporting can be insightful to people across the state. You can follow my work on Twitter @JenAFifield.
