Kelley Shannon

Veteran Texas journalist Kelley Shannon is the founder and owner of kelleyshannon.com. Shannon has worked for multiple news organizations and spent 22 years with the Associated Press based in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas. Among the major news stories she covered for the AP were the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco and the ensuing federal trial of surviving sect members; the massacre at a Luby’s cafeteria in Killeen; the Democratic boycott over congressional redistricting in the 2003 Texas Legislature; and the presidential election of then-Gov. George W. Bush.

Named an AP sportswriter, she covered the San Antonio Spurs NBA team during the David Robinson and Tim Duncan era. Shannon also reported on Houston Oilers training camps and the annual Alamo Bowl football game.

Her San Antonio assignments frequently involved coverage of the Texas-Mexico border and the free trade agreement known as NAFTA. She served as one of the news agency’s go-to reporters in Texas for spot news ranging from oil spills to prison riots to hurricanes.

In Austin she managed the news agency’s capital bureau for a decade and served as lead political reporter, covering the 2000 presidential race by George W. Bush and the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Texas governor’s races won by Republican Rick Perry. Amid the rise of the tea party movement in early 2009, Shannon was the reporter who asked Perry his views on secession, generating comments from the governor that swept national news reports and talk shows and that continue to be referenced in coverage of Perry as a potential national candidate.

Shannon is devoted to telling the unique stories of Texas – its politics, its land and its people.