Down Ballot is an independent publication launched in 2024 by Ben Ledbetter. It's a weekly report that's curated from nonprofit newsrooms that cover state and local government news.
We publish on Fridays at 5 a.m. When there is breaking news, it will be posted on the website.
Ben Ledbetter is an experienced, versatile journalist that wrote for The (Sumter, S.C.) Item, the now-shuttered Loudoun Easterner in Ashburn, Va., USAE (trade publication for associations, CVBs and hotels) in Bethesda, Md., The (Lexington, N.C.) Dispatch.
He's had bylines in The (Greensboro, N.C.) News & Record, The Charlotte Observer, The (Rock Hill, S.C.) Herald, The (Orangeburg, S.C.) Times & Democrat, The (Wilmington, N.C.) Star-News, The Denver Post, The (Asheville, N.C.) Citizen-Times, The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune, The Louisiana Weekly, New Orleans CityBusiness, Carolina Public Press and probably a few others.
Ledbetter earned a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies from UNC Greensboro and a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of New Orleans.
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