Hello!

I’m Molly Ball, senior political correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and author of the bestselling biography Pelosi. I created this Substack to help people follow my work, but I no longer update it regularly. Feel free to subscribe in case I revive it someday or use it for future announcements, but don’t expect frequent updates. I encourage, implore and recommend that you follow my work by clicking the “follow” button after my name on my WSJ author page. You can also follow me on X and Threads and probably whatever other social network comes along next.

Wait, who are you again?

I cover U.S. politics for the Wall Street Journal, the world’s greatest newspaper. I write features, profiles and analysis aimed at helping people understand what’s going on in the political world. You may have seen me on Face the Nation, This Week, Meet the Press, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News or the BBC, or heard me on NPR or your local radio station or podcast. Before joining the WSJ in 2023, I was the national political correspondent for Time magazine. I’ve also reported for the Atlantic, Politico, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Sun, Cambodia Daily, Washington Post, New York Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo (Ohio) Blade.

I’ve received numerous awards for my political coverage, including the Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress, the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency, the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, the Washington Women in Journalism Outstanding Print Journalist award, the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award, the Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism and the Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis. I’m a Yale grad and former University of Michigan Knight-Wallace journalism fellow. I once won $100,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. 

I was born in Idaho and grew up mostly in Colorado. Now I live in the Washington, DC, area with my husband, our three kids, one cat and one obstreperous parrot.