Meet the MPR News politics team

The state legislative session opens on Monday and it’s not just law makers who are jumping into action. The politics team at MPR News is gearing up to keep Minnesotans informed about what’s happening at the state Capitol.  

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with three journalists on the MPR News politics team about what drew them to the politics beat, how covering politics has changed and what to expect from this year’s state legislative session and also the upcoming presidential election.   

Guests:

• Brian Bakst was named political editor at MPR News in Oct. 2023 after almost eight years as a political correspondent for MPR News. Before that he worked 17 years for the Associated Press in the Twin Cities.  




• Dana Ferguson is a senior politics reporter at MPR News. She previously covered Minnesota state government and politics for Forum News Service and worked for newspapers in South Dakota and Wisconsin. 




• Clay Masters joined MPR News as a senior politics reporter in January. He worked for more than a decade in the Iowa Public Radio newsroom as a statehouse and political correspondent and as host of IPR’s Morning Edition. 

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.