BREAKING: Washington Post refuses to endorse Kamala Harris for president

The Washington Post will not endorse a candidate for president going into the election. The paper's editorial page has done so each election cycle for the last 36 years but will not do so this time.

The Post stated in a release, "The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates."

It added in conclusion, "Our job at The Washington Post is to provide through the newsroom non-partisan news for all Americans, and thought-provoking, reported views from our opinion team to help our readers make up their own minds. Most of all, our job as the newspaper of the capital city of the most important country in the world is to be independent."

The outlet cited different statements that it has made over the years where it said it would not endorse a candidate for the outlet to say, "we our returning to our roots." One was a statement from 1960, where the paper’s editorial wrote that it was its “tradition” not to endorse any candidate for president, however the outlet made an exception to endorse Eisenhower in the 1952 election.  

"In the light of hindsight we retain the view that the arguments for [Eisenhower's] nomination and election were compelling. But hindsight also has convinced us that it might have been wiser for an independent newspaper in the Nation's Capital to have avoided formal endorsement," the Post said at the time. The outlet, however, changed its standard practice 36 years ago and began to make endorsements every cycle, up until Friday's decision for 2024. 

According to NPR, on Friday, the editorial page editor David Shipley told coworkers in a tense meeting that he “owns” the decision. Shipley reportedly said that he wanted to create an “independent space" so that readers are not told to vote for any specific candidate.

The Washington Post joins the LA Times in its lack of endorsement, which also came as a surprise to many when the outlet did not publicly call for the support of the Democratic nominee.