On Oct. 25, 2024, I made the rashest promise of my journalism career.
William Lewis, the publisher of The Washington Post, had just announced that the paper would not endorse a presidential candidate — not in the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and not in any future contest. The decision came as a shock to the staff of The Post, and it outraged readers. As the Letters and Community editor, I felt a duty to those readers, many of whom had been writing in for weeks to ask when an endorsement would be published. And so I waded into the comments section, encouraged readers to send in letters, and pledged to read every one of their submissions personally.
They accepted my invitation, and within minutes, it was clear what I’d gotten myself into. Letters pelted into the inbox, a torrent of anger, bafflement and hurt that eventually left me with more than 21,000 emails to read. I’d never seen anything like it — certainly not on the routine days when we might receive 400 emails, but not even at major news moments such as Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance or the assassination attempt on Trump.