Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer at Politico and Politico Magazine. Prior to joining Politico, he was on the enterprise team at the Tampa Bay Times, where he won the American Society of News Editors’ distinguished non-deadline writing award and the Paul Hansell Award for Distinguished Achievement in Florida Journalism. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Newspaper Narratives, Out There: The Wildest Stories from Outside Magazine, and Next Wave: America’s New Generation of Great Literary Journalists.