National’s New Florida Correspondent

For years, many of the wildest and most memorable stories coming out of Florida bore the same byline: David Ovalle.

Covering crime and criminal justice for The Miami Herald, David wrote about a murder rooted in Miami's niche world of pigeon racing . A businessman who used $2.1 million in pandemic loans to buy " the peak Miami status symbols ," including a Lamborghini. The brazen theft from a warehouse of thousands of pairs of the body-shaping undergarments known as fajas - think Spanx, but Spanish.

In his more recent job at The Washington Post, David spent three years covering addiction, illegal drugs and public health policy. Steve Smith, his editor for most of that time and now a deputy on Metro, says: "David reports with intensity and empathy. He writes with precision and elan. He can spot a great story - and a charlatan - a mile away. And his talents as a writer and a reporter are eclipsed only by his decency and caring as a colleague."

We're pleased he's joining the National desk as Florida correspondent.

Already, he has worked on ​several ​pieces of enterprise for National, including a revealing portrait with Pati Mazzei of a Bangladeshi immigrant whose brutal killing at a Florida gas station turned into political messaging for President Trump.

At The Post, David investigated how pain pills fueled the fentanyl crisis, how the Sackler family reaped a fortune overseas and how police departments misused facial recognition technology .​ He also reported ​for The Post on immigration detention in Florida, the Trump travel ban's toll on Cuban American families and how exorbitant new visa fees ​were roiling rural hospitals.​

Before that, David spent 20 years at ​The Herald, where he was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the 2021 collapse of ​the condo building in Surfside that killed 98 people. He owned the crime and courts beat thanks to deep sources that he built in police departments and courthouses. He wrote about police shootings and alleged misconduct ; the Parkland school massacre , and complex legal cases involving the Stand Your Ground defense and the death penalty .

David has also covered no fewer than 18 hurricanes and tropical storms in Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean, including Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

David lives in Miami with his family.

Please join us in welcoming him.

- Nestor and Abby