Reporting on Power and Policy: A conversation with the 2025 Nyhan Prize Honorees

Join us for a discussion with the recipients of the 2025 David Nyhan Prizes for Public Policy Journalism, Judd Legum and Samantha Maldonado. These honors celebrate journalists whose compelling reporting elevates public understanding of policy, politics, and the impact of government on people’s lives—especially those often left unheard by the halls of power. This year’s honorees are recognized for work that not only exposes how decisions are made, but also helps audiences see their own daily realities in relation to public policy choices. 2023 Nyhan Prize winner, Robert Downen, will moderate the conversation.

Judd Legum: David Nyhan Prize for Public Policy Journalism 

Praised as “timely, fearless, and factual,” Judd Legum is the founder and author of Popular Information, an independent newsletter dedicated to accountability journalism. Trained as a lawyer and steeped in practical political experience, Legum has built a model of journalism that combines meticulous investigative reporting with clear, accessible explanations of how power operates—and who benefits. 

Through Popular Information, Legum has repeatedly shown how a single, well-documented story can spur tangible change. Nyhan Prize judges celebrated his dedication to digging up under-reported stories, and his ability to see a story with the eyes of both an editor and reporter. In a time when independent journalism is rapidly growing, they also hailed Popular Information, which was the first political publication on Substack when it launched in 2018, as a pioneer. 

Popular Information won the 2020 Online Journalism Award for Excellence in Newsletters, and its reporting was credited by Bloomberg with bringing a “political reckoning” to corporate America. Legum’s work is cited widely and regularly across major news outlets.  Previously, he was founder and served as editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress, and was the research director for Hilary Clinton’s first presidential campaign. He is a graduate of Pomona College and Georgetown University Law Center. 

Through dogged reporting, clear-eyed analysis, and a steadfast focus on accountability, Judd Legum exemplifies the people-centered political journalism that the Nyhan Prize was created to honor. 

Samantha Maldonado: David Nyhan Emerging Talent Journalism Prize

Samantha Maldonado, winner of the 2025 David Nyhan Emerging Talent Journalism Prize, is a senior reporter at THE CITY, a digital, nonprofit newsroom serving New Yorkers. She covers climate, housing, and politics in New York City—beats that sit at the intersection of daily life and long-term public policy. Her colleagues praise her as a “persistent” and “relentless” reporter with a “deep commitment to showing non-experts how policy decisions shape the world they live in.” The judges were impressed with her clear-eyed reporting on people in power, and her intuition for finding the heart of a story.  

Before joining THE CITY, Maldonado covered energy and environmental policy for Politico, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, the Associated Press, and CNN. She teaches at the City University of New York’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. She was previously a Global Exchange Fellow with the Urban Design Forum, and a Climate Economics Journalism Fellow at New York University’s Stern School of Business. 

For her deeply committed, public-minded work that consistently centers public understanding and accountability for the city and state officials who shape climate, energy, and development policy, Samantha Maldonado is being honored with the 2025 David Nyhan Emerging Talent Journalism Prize. 

About the Prize 

Named in honor of the late David Nyhan—respected Boston Globe columnist and tireless champion of the public good—the Nyhan Prizes honor journalists who go beyond the horserace and power plays of political reporting. These awards recognize journalists who uncover what makes our democracy tick: who pulls the levers, who bears the consequences, and how government can better serve the people at its heart. Both prizes honor the recipient’s broad body of work across their career, with the Emerging Talent prize focused on recognizing early career journalists who show success, potential, and drive to do the kind of journalism the prize honors. Nominations are accepted from newsrooms, journalists, and the general public.  

Judging Committee

The 2025 Nyhan Prize winners were selected by a panel of judges overseen by Shorenstein Center Director of Communications and Strategy Liz Schwartz, and were confirmed by Shorenstein Center Director Nancy Gibbs. The 2025 judges were: 

• Alison King, former political reporter for NBC Boston/NECN, 2024 Shorenstein Center and Harvard Institute of Politics fellow 
• Nick Nyhan, Managing Partner at Upside Analytics and son of David Nyhan 
• David von Drehle, former Washington Post columnist and 2018 Nyhan Prize Winner 

Moderator

Robert Downen is a reporter at The Texas Tribune whose work has forced some of the nation’s most powerful institutions to confront their darkest parts — from white supremacists embedded in the Republican Party of Texas to a sexual abuse crisis in the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s second-largest faith group. He was a recipient of the 2023 Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism.