Danielle Paquette

Washington, D.C.

National Correspondent, America Desk

Education: Indiana University, BA in journalism

Danielle Paquette is a national correspondent for The Washington Post's America Desk. She previously served as West Africa bureau chief and has reported from more than 20 countries on four continents. Paquette joined The Post in 2014, starting as a roving economics reporter. A native of Indiana, she has also worked for the Tampa Bay Times and the Los Angeles Times.
Latest from Danielle Paquette

Police records reveal new details about sexual assault allegation against Pete Hegseth

The incident has roiled Donald Trump’s transition team since the former president announced Hegseth as his pick for defense secretary.

November 21, 2024
Pete Hegseth gets on an elevator after arriving at Trump Tower in New York in 2016. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Wisconsin’s high court hears case set to decide state’s abortion rights

At issue is a pre-Civil War law that would completely bar the procedure, with no exceptions for incest, rape or to save the health of a pregnant woman.

November 11, 2024
Supporters of reproductive rights head to the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison during a 2023 march in support of overturning a near-total ban on abortion.

The Haitians of Springfield, a Trump campaign target, brace for his presidency

Donald Trump vowed to deport the Haitians of Springfield during his campaign. Many in the Ohio community are worried and praying after he won the presidency.

November 7, 2024
First-time voter Selena Greene watches election coverage at home in Springfield, Ohio. Greene cast her ballot for Kamala Harris. (Matthew Chasney for The Washington Post)

They’re coming after you, Trump says. But who are ‘they’?

They are faceless. They are implied. They are the amorphous core of TikTok conspiracy theories. “They” are to blame for almost everything, according to Donald Trump.

October 30, 2024
Flags and signs on a house use the Trump rally shooting as a campaign rallying point, in Monessen, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 7.

In Wisconsin county, undecided voters reflect unease with Trump, Harris

Door County’s residents have sided with the winner of the last seven presidential races. As November nears, voters are anxious, fearful and still undecided.

October 25, 2024

When abortion politics complicates mothers’ addiction recovery

A 2023 study stressed the danger. “Substance use,” it found, was involved in more than half of Kentucky’s maternal deaths.

October 1, 2024
Grace Bechtel with her daughter Lana in Louisville.

Finding help to get sober is hard. In Kentucky, it’s even harder as a mom.

Compassion in the deep-red state only extends so far for a young woman marking her 20th month of sobriety and trying to make a life for her two daughters.

October 1, 2024

Helene death toll climbs with fatalities reported in 5 states

The storm spiraled through multiple states after making landfall late Thursday in Florida. Damage was extensive across hundreds of miles.

September 27, 2024
A local resident helps free a car that became stranded in a stretch of flooding road as Tropical Storm Helene strikes on the outskirts of Boone, N.C., on Friday.

Hurricane Helene slams into Florida with catastrophic storm surge forecast

Long before its landfall late Thursday, Hurricane Helene and its intense wind and rain were already threatening millions of people in four states.

September 26, 2024
Marissa Kraus of St. Petersburg, Fla., observes storm surge flooding in Gulfport, Fla., as Hurricane Helene approaches on Thursday.

Springfield, Ohio, and the impact of a racist smear

After the presidential debate, Donald Trump’s false claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, remain in the spotlight. Where did the story come from, why won’t it go away, and how is it all affecting the community at the center of it?

September 18, 2024