Jay Root

Jay Root didn’t know any reporters when he was growing up in Liberty, Texas, and he has never taken a journalism class in his life. But Root has been hooked on the news business since the day he walked into the offices of his college newspaper, The Daily Texan, during his last year at the University of Texas. Inside that newsroom was the biggest collection of misfits ever assembled, and Root looked upon them as members of his lost tribe.
After some post-college wandering, Root eventually made his way to the Houston Post, where he took an unpaid internship in 1990. It turned into a full-time job that same year, and he has been a reporter ever since. Over more than two decades, Root has covered natural disasters, border violence, live music and Texas politics — not necessarily in that order. He was Austin bureau chief of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a dozen years, most of them good. He also covered politics and the Legislature for The Associated Press.
A few weeks after joining the staff of the Texas Tribune in 2011, Root was assigned to Rick Perry’s presidential campaign — to be an “embed” following the Texas governor’s every move. Root recorded his observations of the campaign in a journal, which became the basis of his first book, “Oops! A Diary From The 2012 Campaign Trail,” an insider’s account of the Texas governor’s dramatic collapse. The book was released in September, 2012.