N&O names reporter Dawn Vaughan as Capitol bureau chief
The News & Observer announced this week it has promoted reporter Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan to Capitol bureau chief.
The position is a new one for The N&O, but Vaughan is not new to the beat. She has covered government and politics for the past six years and state government specifically since 2019.
Vaughan is a dogged and well-sourced reporter, an ambassador for The N&O in other media, a trusted colleague and a leader in the newsroom, editors say. Some readers and listeners know her for peppering Gov. Roy Cooper with questions at his news conferences or for hosting the Under the Dome weekly politics podcast. She currently serves as president of the Capitol Press Corps.
As bureau chief, Vaughan will take the lead in covering the politics of North Carolina’s legislative and executive branches. Working closely with other journalists who cover state government, she will follow the key negotiations among top leaders and how the decisions they make connect to money, power and winning elections.
Joining Vaughan in covering state government for The N&O, The Herald-Sun and The Charlotte Observer are reporters Avi Bajpai, Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi and NC Insider editor Lars Dolder. The politics team also includes Washington correspondent Danielle Battaglia and politics editor Jordan Schrader.
How The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer cover North Carolina politics
“Dawn’s work is a big reason that readers continue to look to The N&O for the latest and best state government and politics coverage,” N&O Executive Editor Bill Church said. “We’re excited to see what she does in this important role.”
Vaughan describes herself as an Army brat, and memories of living at Fort Bragg as a kid were among the things that drew her back to North Carolina. She spent most of her formative years in Northern Virginia, so D.C. politics is local politics to her. In bipartisan fashion, as a child she wrote letters to presidents of both parties.
A graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, she started her career covering local government and features at community newspapers and The Roanoke (Virginia) Times before moving to North Carolina in 2005. She covered a variety of beats at The Herald-Sun in Durham, from religion to Broadway to Durham City Hall.
While covering Durham, she received the McClatchy President’s Award for the team’s gentrification project. Over the years she has also received several North Carolina Press Association awards for investigative journalism, politics, features, business, criticism, columns, breaking news and religion.
In 2022, Vaughan received the North Carolina Open Government Coalition’s Sunshine Award for her coverage of the state budget. One of her colleagues joked that she was given the state budget as a beat to haze her, but it turned out she actually likes it.
Vaughan also recently won an award bestowed by her colleagues: The N&O’s Winning Culture award, prompting Church to say of Vaughan in a column: “She’s also the most competitive person in our newsroom – and that’s OK even when she keeps score during lunchtime UNO tournaments.”
