Zoe Clark
Associate General Manager, Political Director & It's Just Politics hostZoe Clark is Michigan Public's Associate General Manager and Political Director.
As Associate General Manager, Clark helps to guide Michigan Public’s strategic direction, content vision, and cross-platform integration.
As Political Director, Clark guides coverage of the state Capitol, elections, and policy debates. Her passion for understanding and explaining politics led Michigan Public to create the position in 2022 for the first time in station history.
Clark is also the host of It's Just Politics, a weekly look at Michigan politics, with Michigan Public Radio Network's Senior Capitol Correspondent Rick Pluta. Together, they co-author the It's Just Politics Newsletter.
Clark regularly appears on WKAR’s Off the Record, WDIV’s Flashpoint and offers political analysis on NPR, PBS, CNN, and the BBC.
Clark is an award-winning journalist, including the prestigious Peabody for overseeing the station’s first nationally distributed podcast Believed.
Clark previously was the station’s Program Director and is the co-founder and former Executive Producer of Stateside. She began at the station by producing Jack Lessenberry’s daily interviews and essays, and producing Michigan Radio’s Morning Edition.
Clark began her collegiate studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She holds degrees in Communication Studies and Political Science from the University of Michigan and lives in Ann Arbor, where she was born and raised.
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Less than a week ahead of the October 1 deadline to avert a partial state government shutdown, and months past a due-date written into state law, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the leaders of the state House and Senate announced Thursday evening that they have "reached an agreement" to pass a budget to keep the government funded. But there’s still a lot of work to be done. -
Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan lawmakers have one week to come up with a budget deal. If they don’t there will be partial state government shutdown. What do voters think about the stalemate in Lansing? And who will they blame if there’s a shutdown? Pollster Richard Czuba, founder of Glengariff Group, has answers. -
On Tuesday, with two weeks before a possible partial state government shutdown, Governor Gretchen Whitmer seemingly reemerged with a speech at the State Capitol. Its focus was the economic impact on Michigan of federal tariff policy and, more to the point, that not having a state budget deal is only making things worse. -
Governor Gretchen Whitmer warns that the budget deadlock at the state Capitol will worsen Michigan’s economic uncertainty caused by federal tariffs. With just two weeks until a possible state government shutdown, what could a shutdown mean for Michigan’s already shaky economy? -
This week, attorneys for Michigan Senate Democrats faced off against House GOP lawyers in a Michigan Court of Appeals courtroom in Detroit to argue constitutional law, legislative prerogatives and who is ultimately responsible for ensuring nine bills remaining in legislation limbo get moved to the governor’s desk. -
A judge dismisses charges against Michigan’s 2020 so-called ‘fake electors’, the ‘nine bills’ lawsuit between the state House and state Senate is back in court, and three weeks before a possible partial government shutdown, there’s no obvious signs of a budget deal in Lansing. -
House Republicans in Lansing approve a bill to restrict students’ access to school bathrooms. Democrats say the bill is a distraction deployed by the GOP to use transgender teenagers as political pawns while the state budget remains unfinished less than a month before the October 1 deadline to avert a partial government shutdown. -
With exactly four weeks before a possible partial state government shutdown, the question hanging over Lansing remains: where do things stand in state budget negotiations? -
There is a huge decision facing Michigan voters in an already huge 2026 election: whether to vote to convene a constitutional convention (also known as a “Con-Con”) to rewrite the state’s entire constitution. The implications are enormous. What you need to know. -
A proposal to delay paychecks for future governors and legislators if the state budget is not wrapped up by the July 1 legal deadline failed Thursday in the state House. Plus, Detroit Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan has a good week.
