Carl Hulse
Carl E. Hulse (born October 19, 1954) is the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times and the managing editor of First Draft, a political news stream and morning email newsletter. He also writes the Times column "On Washington," about developments in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared online and in newspapers around the world, including MSN, CNBC, Sydney Morning Herald, and Miami Herald.
Hulse was born and raised in Ottawa, Illinois. His father, Carl E. Hulse Sr., was a plumbing contractor, and his mother stayed at home. He earned a degree in Mass Communications from Illinois State University in 1976, where he was a news editor for The Vidette. He has been honored by ISU's Vidette Hall of Fame (2007) and its College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame (2017).
Early in his career, Hulse worked for newspapers in Illinois and Florida, including The Daily Journal (Kankakee) and the Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale). He joined The New York Times’ Washington, D.C. bureau in 1985 as a night editor, and began covering Capitol Hill in May 2002. He was the paper’s Washington editor from 2011 to 2014, coordinating coverage of the White House, the executive branch, Congress, the courts, and the Pentagon. For more than a decade, he has served as the Times’ chief Congressional correspondent.
Hulse lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Kimberly Hamer Hulse, a longtime National Geographic employee. They have two grown sons, Nicolas and Benjamin. He does not identify with a political party. He also plays drums and percussion in a local band called Native Makers, which has written a song called "This Town" and performs on ocean cruises.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:34 (CET).