Teo Armus joins The Washington Post’s local government and politics team

WASHINGTON DC, MAY 24: The Washington Post Building at 1301 K St. NW in Washington DC, May 24, 2016. (John McDonnell / The Washington Post)

Announcement from Local Editor Mike Semel, Deputy Local Editor Monica Norton and Local Government and Politics Editor Jennifer Barrios:

We are thrilled to announce that Teo Armus is joining the local government and politics team to cover Arlington and Alexandria.

Teo has been a reporter on the Morning Mix team for nearly two years, during which time he has shown incredible range, delivering compelling reads about murder hornets in Washington state and a “Stop the Steal” organizer’s claims that three Republican lawmakers helped him with plans for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

He dove into coverage of the Atlanta spa shootings in March, pulling together pieces about the suspect’s claims of “sex addiction” as well as a story on the bombing of an LGBTQ bar next door by a white supremacist two decades before. His versatile and nuanced writing was showcased in his story about a Louisiana cemetery’s denial of a Black man’s burial and another about a Florida man who roamed the state’s beaches dressed as the Grim Reaper after the governor reopened them at the height of the pandemic.

Before coming to Morning Mix, Teo covered race and immigration for the Charlotte Observer and was a reporting fellow at the Texas Tribune. He’s a graduate of Columbia University, where he majored in urban studies.

In a sense, Teo is coming home. He interned on the local politics desk in 2018, producing memorable stories about the closure of a longtime gay nightclub in D.C. and immigrant families reuniting after they were separated at the border.

In his spare time, Teo enjoys scouring farmers markets and perfecting recipes for focaccia and empanadas. With more sunlight in his schedule, he says, he hopes to kill fewer house plants this year.

Please congratulate Teo on his new role, which begins May 24.