Todd S. Purdum – Journalist / Author

Todd Stanley Purdum was born in Macomb, Illinois in 1959.  He graduated from Macomb High School in 1978 and from Princeton University in 1982 where he was a member of the University Press Club.

Purdum has defined his career as a sharp observer of politics, culture, and Hollywood as a Washington correspondent of The New York Times, national editor at Vanity Fair, and a senior writer for Politico. Purdum spent 23 years at the Times, covering city hall, and the White House, before moving out west to be the Times’s correspondent in Los Angeles. He joined Vanity Fair in 2006, and in 2013, he began dividing his time, joining Politico as a senior writer. Purdum joined The Atlantic as a staff writer and as a California correspondent in July of 2018. Purdum is a frequent political talk show guest and has appeared on Meet The Press, Face The Nation, Washington Week, C-Span, Charlie Rose, CNN and MSNBC, among numerous others.

He is the author of the just-published book, Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution, and is also the author of An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Two Presidents, Two Parties and the Battle for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1997, he married former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, who served President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1994. Their marriage is the basis for the relationship between C.J. Cregg and Danny Concannon on the TV show The West Wing. Purdum and Myers have two children and reside in Los Angeles.