Joseph Rago (January 6, 1983 – July 20, 2017) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American political writer, best known for his work at ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''.

Education

Rago attended Falmouth High School in Falmouth,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, where he was president of the National Honor Society. He graduated in 2001. Rago graduated with a degree in

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...

from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

in 2005. While there, he wrote for ''

The Dartmouth Review ''The Dartmouth Review'' is a conservative newspaper at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Founded in 1980 by a number of staffers from the College's daily newspaper, ''The Dartmouth,'' the paper is most famous for having ...

'', an independent conservative student newspaper, serving as its editor-in-chief in 2005, and on its board after his graduation.

Career

Rago joined ''The Wall Street Journal'' in 2005 as an intern and rose from an assistant editor on the op-ed page to editorial writer to a member of the editorial board. Rago was also a 2010 media fellow at the Stanford University

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...

. Rago was known for being an outspoken critic of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In 2011, he captured the

Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing The Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been awarded since 1917 for distinguished editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style ...

for what the Pulitzer organization called his "well crafted, against-the-grain editorials challenging the health care reform advocated by

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

Death

In July 2017, Rago was found dead at his

East Village, Manhattan The East Village is a neighborhood on the East Side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is roughly defined as the area east of the Bowery and Third Avenue, between 14th Street on the north and Houston Street on the south. The East Village ...

apartment; he was 34 years old. In September 2017, New York City's medical examiner office released a statement confirming his cause of death to be

sarcoidosis Sarcoidosis (also known as ''Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease'') is a disease involving abnormal collections of inflammatory cells that form lumps known as granulomata. The disease usually begins in the lungs, skin, or lymph nodes. Less commonly a ...

References

External links

*
''Dartmouth Now''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rago, Joseph 1983 births 2017 deaths 21st-century American non-fiction writers American columnists American male non-fiction writers American political commentators American political writers American social commentators Dartmouth College alumni People from Falmouth, Massachusetts Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing winners The Wall Street Journal people Writers from Massachusetts People from the East Village, Manhattan 21st-century American male writers Deaths from sarcoidosis Falmouth High School (Massachusetts) alumni