Washington Post will not participate in the race for the White House for the first time since the 1980s

Updated October 25, 2024 at 3:27 PM ET

Even though the presidential race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is neck and nape, The Washington Post has decided not to issue a presidential endorsement for the first time in 36 years, the publisher and CEO announced Friday.

“We are returning to our roots of not supporting presidential candidates,” wrote Will Lewis an opinion piece published on the newspaper’s website. He was referring to the newspaper’s policies in the decades leading up to 1976, when, after the Watergate scandal that After broke, it supported Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter. The last time the After did not support a presidential candidate in the 1988 general election, according to a search of the archives.

Colleagues heard the news from the editorial page editor, David Shipley, during a tense meeting shortly before Lewis’ announcement. The meeting featured two people with direct knowledge of discussions who could speak on the condition of anonymity about internal matters.

Shipley had approved an editorial endorsement for Harris that was drafted earlier this month, according to three people with direct knowledge. He told his colleagues that the decision to support the paper was reviewed by the paper’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos. That is the owner’s prerogative and is a common practice.

On Friday, Shipley said he told other editorial leaders on Thursday that management had decided there would be no approval, even though Shipley had known about the decision for some time. He added that he “owns” this outcome. The reason he cited was to create an “independent space” where the newspaper does not tell people who to vote for.

Colleagues are said to be “shocked” and unanimously negative. Editor-in-chief Robert Kaganwho was highly critical of Trump as autocratic, told NPR that he had resigned from the editorial staff as a result.

Former Washingtonpost Executive editor Martin Baron, who led the newsroom to high praise during Trump’s presidency, strongly denounced the decision.

“This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy a victim,” Baron said in a statement to NPR. “Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners). History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famous for its courage.”

The Washington Post Guild, which represents editorial staff and other staff, posted a message on

“We are already seeing cancellations from once loyal readers,” the statement said.

There was a furore at the Friday afternoon Washingtonpost was such that the chief tech officer ordered engineers to block questions about her decision on the newspaper’s own AI site search, according to internal correspondence reviewed by NPR.

After Industry spokespeople declined to comment on Lewis’ statement to readers.

Trump regularly addresses news broadcasts

A similar decision from Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong This week led to the dismissal of the newspaper’s editorial editor and two editorial staff. Soon-Shiong said he asked the editors to prepare a “factual analysis” of Trump and Harris’ policies and plans. In her resignation letter, editor-in-chief Mariel Garza said the decision made the newspaper appear “cowardly and hypocritical” given its past reporting and editorials about Trump.

The AfterThe country’s investigative team has routinely reported on misconduct and allegations of illegality by former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, and his associates. The newsroom, which is run separately from the newsroom, has repeatedly stated that Trump’s actions in office and his rhetoric as a candidate have made him unfit for office.

The focus was primarily on what he did in January 2021 to encourage his supporters to deny the formal certification of President Biden’s election.

During his campaign, Trump threatened to take revenge on journalists and media if he became president again.

In particular, he has promised to jail reporters who will not identify the source of government leaks and to strip three major television networks of their broadcasting rights. (Only local TV stations are actually licensed by federal regulators, not the networks themselves. But the three networks together own 80 local television stations.)

Book: Bezos thought differently in 2016

The possibility that the After could withhold an approval was first reported by Oliver Darcy’s newsletter Status. Even before Friday’s announcement, the potential lack of a feature story provoked consternation among journalists within the newspaper Afterwho see it as a major American publication that must pay attention to the most pressing issue of the day.

After owner Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the richest people in the world, has major contracts for the federal government for his other business activities, impacting billions of dollars on Amazon’s shipping business and cloud computing services, as well as his space company Blue Origin.

Bezos tapped Lewis, who has significant conservative bonafides, as publisher and CEO in January. Lewis fulfilled the same role with Rupert Murdoch Wall Street Journal; served as editor of the London-based Telegraphwho is closely associated with the Tory party; and was an advisor to the conservative Boris Johnson when Johnson was Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Colleagues have told NPR that Bezos selected Lewis in part because of his ability to deal with powerful conservative figures, including Murdoch.

In his memoirs, Clash of powerBaron wrote that then-publisher Fred Ryan would not endorse in the 2016 race that pitted Trump against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.