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David Hawkings
David Mark Hawkings Jr. (born January 24, 1960) is an American journalist focused on the policies and politics of Congress. Since 1995 he has been an editor at Congressional Quarterly and Roll Call.

Early Life and Education
David Hawkings was born in on 24 January 1960 in Manhattan, the son of an investment banker and a home-maker. A paternal great-grandfather was the English architect Leonard Stokes. He attended the Buckley School, Hotchkiss School, and graduated with a political science degree in 1982 from Bucknell University. He was editor of the campus newspapers at all three schools.

Family
In 1987, Hawkings married Elisabeth (Betsy) Wright, who later spent two decades as chief of staff to Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, and three other Republican members of Congress. She is now director of the governance program at the Democracy Fund, a bipartisan foundation established by eBay founder and philanthropist Pierre Omidyar to improve the political system. Their sons are Harry (born 1992) and Charlie (born 1998).

Career
For four years starting in 1982 Hawkings covered federal courts and city hall, was a metro section columnist and then an assistant city editor for the San Antonio Light. In 1986 he became press secretary for Republican Lamar Smith during his initial campaign for the House of Representatives and remained for Smith’s first term. He returned to journalism for good in 1989 and was a Washington correspondent for Thomson newspapers for six years.

He was managing editor of the CQ Daily Monitor before joining the CQ Weekly in 1999, first as congressional leadership editor, then economic affairs editor, then senior editor for legislative affairs. He was editor of the 12th edition of “Politics in America,” the company’s signature reference biography for all members of Congress. In 2004 he began six years as managing editor of CQ Weekly, and under his leadership the magazine was twice awarded the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress.

After the Economist Group acquired CQ and merged it with Roll Call, Hawkings was assigned to edit the company’s first new product, the online and e-mail Daily Briefing. Since 2013 he has been the senior editor for CQ Roll Call, writing his “Hawkings Here” column several times a week, penning a monthly column for CQ and hosting a series of videos and podcasts dubbed “Roll Call Decoder.”

He makes regular appearances as a guest commentator on Fox News, Federal News Radio and WJLA’ s “Government Matters.” He has also appeared as an analyst on CNN, MSNBC and NPR.