Meet the USA TODAY Opinion team

The USA TODAY Opinion team includes columnists, editors and digital journalists from across the country and the political spectrum. Opinions expressed by the USA TODAY Opinion team and contributing writers are separate from any part of USA TODAY or its parent company, Gannett.

We strive to present an opinion section online and in print that reflects the fullness of the national dialogue, offering commentary and analysis from columnists, readers and contributors on a wide range of issues from many perspectives.

Michael McCarter

Michael McCarter is the vice president/group editor of the Opinion sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY. He is also the director of Standards, Ethics and Belonging for the USA TODAY Network. Before joining USA TODAY, McCarter was the executive editor at the Evansville Courier & Press in Indiana and the senior news director at the Cincinnati Enquirer in Ohio.

Tim Swarens

Tim Swarens is deputy opinion editor for USA TODAY. A former opinion editor and columnist with The Indianapolis Star, he joined USA TODAY Opinion in 2018 as Hidden Common Ground editor. He was the editor or writer on projects that won national awards from Sigma Delta Chi, National Headliners, Scripps Howard, American Society of Newspaper Editors and Robert F. Kennedy Excellence in Journalism.

In 2018, he was the author of the EXPLOITED project, a 10-part series that investigated child sex trafficking in the United States and internationally. His work as editor of The Manual Project, a yearlong examination of conditions at an urban Indianapolis high school, led to creation of the Our City, Our Children initiative, which raised millions of dollars to aid youth in Central Indiana and inspired thousands of people to serve as mentors and tutors for at-risk children. Swarens is a graduate of Indiana University and Vincennes University with degrees in journalism. He and his wife live in Indianapolis. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @tswarens.

Louie Villalobos

Louie Villalobos is the director of content for Opinion at Gannett and deputy opinion editor for USA TODAY. He became the audience development editor for USA TODAY Opinion in 2021, after working for more than two years as a politics editor for USA TODAY. He was one of several editors to lead the political coverage of the 2020 presidential election and the federal government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before joining USA TODAY in 2018, he worked for 14 years at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix. He was an editor on the Republic team that was a Pulitzer finalist in 2014 for breaking news reporting and helped create the audience/social media plan for the border wall project that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. His first journalism job was in 1999, when he worked in the sports department of the Augusta Chronicle in Georgia. He is a first-generation American who grew up on the U.S. border with Mexico in California and went on to write about the border as a reporter in Arizona. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @louievillalobos.

Thuan Elston

Thuan Le Elston has been the Opinion operations editor since 2005. Her responsibilities include page layout, copy editing, and print and online publishing. She also writes editorials, opinion columns, poetry and fiction. Previously, she was a news copy editor for The Salt Lake Tribune and USA TODAY, and a news reporter for the Greenwich (Connecticut) Time and the Los Angeles Times. She was born in South Vietnam and left a week before Saigon fell in 1975. She received a B.A. in journalism from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. One of her few non-journalism jobs was a speaking role in Oliver Stone's movie “Heaven and Earth.” She's married with four children. Her historical fiction novel, "Rendezvous at the Altar: From Vietnam to Virginia," was published Sept. 14, 2021. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @thuanelston.

Casey Blake

Casey Blake is the Voices editor for USA TODAY Opinion. A native of Asheville, North Carolina, Blake started with the USA TODAY Network in 2010 as a reporter and columnist covering education, social issues, state politics and more. She has won nine first-place North Carolina Press Association awards and was awarded first place in the 2019 National Society of Newspaper Columnists contest for column writing.

Have an opinion?Find our submission guidelines and learn how to send in pieces here.

Rex Huppke

Early in his career as a humor(ish) columnist at the Chicago Tribune, Rex Huppke declared himself “America’s most-beloved columnist,” a claim wholly unsupported by facts or empirical evidence. Nobody pushed back against that claim or demanded a correction, so Huppke embraced the title and launched a career built on a firm foundation of accidental branding. Huppke started his working life as a chemical engineer but soon realized making money is undignified, so he veered into the writer’s life by way of a master’s degree from the University of Missouri Graduate School of Journalism. As he transitioned to column writing, Huppke found his penchant for humor an effective way of delivering opinions. In 2012, he wrote a satirical obituary for facts that was named one of Time magazine’s top 10 opinion pieces of the year. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones once called Huppke a coward, a moment he views as roughly the equivalent of winning a Pulitzer. He is now a national columnist at USA TODAY, writing staggeringly brilliant (according to him) columns on the news of the day. Find him on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke.

Ingrid Jacques

Ingrid Jacques joined USA TODAY as an opinion columnist in May 2022. She has worked in journalism for nearly two decades, and prior to her current role, she served as a columnist and deputy editorial page editor at The Detroit News, where she spent 12 years as a member of the editorial board. She has written frequently on Michigan and national politics, with a focus on education and cultural issues. She has won numerous recognitions for her writing, including two first-place awards for editorial writing from the Michigan Associated Press Media Editors and a first place for editorial writing from the Detroit chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She was also part of a three-member team that won a first-place National Headliner for editorial writing. In addition to USA TODAY and The Detroit News, her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Review (online), the Washington Examiner, Real Clear Politics and the Weekly Standard, among others. A native of Salem, Oregon, Jacques has a degree in English from Hillsdale College and a master’s in journalism from Michigan State University. She lives in Metro Detroit with her husband. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @Ingrid_Jacques.

Nicole Russell

Nicole Russell joined USA TODAY as an opinion columnist in April 2024. She has worked in journalism for 15 years. Prior to this role, she served as an opinion writer and member of the editorial board at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for two years. There, she covered Texas and national politics, including the Uvalde shooting and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial. Before that, she lived just outside Washington, D.C., and spent a decade writing at publications like the Federalist, the Washington Examiner and the American Spectator, where she won the Young Journalist of the Year award. In addition to USA TODAY and the Star-Telegram, her work has appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Post, the Daily Beast and lifestyle publications like Wine Enthusiast and Parents magazines. A Minnesota native, Russell has a degree in English from Cedarville University and resides in the heart of Texas with her four children and two dogs. Find her on X, formerly Twitter, @russell_nm.

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Chris Brennan

Chris Brennan is a national columnist covering the 2024 election. Before joining USA TODAY he spent 24 years as a reporter, political editor and columnist at The Philadelphia Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He has written about Joe Biden’s slumping approval ratings, Donald Trump’s looming legal woes, third-party candidates for president, abortion, foreign affairs and Christian nationalism. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @bychrisbrennan.

Sara Pequeño

Sara Pequeño is a USA TODAY national columnist covering the 2024 election. She worked as a columnist for The Raleigh News & Observer from 2021 to 2023, where she also served on McClatchy’s North Carolina Editorial Board. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with degrees in journalism and political science in 2019, then spent two years covering the town and university for the alt-weekly INDY Week. She received an award from the North Carolina Press Association for higher education reporting in 2022. She shares a hometown with Andy Griffith and reside in New York City. Find her on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno.

Janessa Hilliard

Janessa Hilliard is the director of audience for Opinion at Gannett, including USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network. She joined USA TODAY as the Opinion digital producer in 2022 and helped lead coverage for USA TODAY's Women of the Year project. She previously worked for the USA TODAY Network's Florida-Georgia Digital Optimization Team. A former freelance journalist, her work has appeared in The Arizona Republic and Phoenix New Times, where she won the 2014 Arizona Press Club award for statewide features. She attended the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, and received a B.A. in women & gender studies from ASU's School of Social Transformation.

Drew Atkins

Drew Atkins is an Opinion digital producer for USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network. Prior to their time there, they worked with Florida and Georgia's USA TODAY Network papers as a digital producer and, before that, covered food and features for the Naples Daily News and Fort Myers News-Press.