Josie Lenora
Politics/Government ReporterJosie Lenora is the Politics/Government Reporter for Little Rock Public Radio. She covers anything involving city government, the legislature, or the governor's office. Josie led up the 2024 "Arkansas Decides" election coverage, and is developing an anthology news podcast for the station. She is the occasional fill-in host for Morning Edition or All Things Considered.
Josie has thirteen first-place awards from the Arkansas Society of Professional Journalists. Her report on the Arkansas Department of Education's AP African American Studies ban won first place at the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest for 2024.
She was the recipient of The National Press Foundations Elections Journalism Fellowship. She served on the board for the Arkansas Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists 2024-2025.
In 2025, she won a first place award from the Arkansas Press Women for her piece on a planned prison in Charleston, Arkansas. The same year, she won the UA Little Rock Ben Fry Award for Staff Achievement, and was the recipient of The Arkansas Press Women’s First Investigative Journalism Mini-Grant.
Her reporting has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition. This includes the Lawsuit over "Critical Race Theory" in Schools, Arkansas drag bans and the State Monument to the Unborn. She freelanced audio for Gimlet's podcast "Crime Show," "Embedded: Taking Cover" from NPR and Dateline NBC's "Murder in Apartment 12."
Josie is an occasional guest on the Arkansas-PBS weekly news show "Arkansas Week," and moderated a televised congressional debate for the public TV station.
Josie has a B.A. in English/creative writing from Hendrix College in Conway.
Outside work, Josie is a crafting fanatic. Name a craft and she's probably tried it: renovating the insides of old dollhouses, making cards, polymer clay, needle felting, DIY home decorating and layered paper crafting.
Josie loves spin class, nonfiction audiobooks, Stephen King novels, caffeinated lattes, every shade of pink and her Maltese-Dachshund: Carter. She listens to as many podcasts as she can fit in a day.
Josie's excited to talk to you! Email: josie@littlerockpublicradio.org
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Pulaski County Circuit Judge Shawn Johnson has ordered Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to change the date for a special election to fill a vacant legislative seat. -
Onlookers could only see the feet of people loading onto a nondescript bus in front of the unlabeled building near Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport Wednesday afternoon. -
Residents of an Arkansas House district wants an election moved up, so they don't go into the 2026 fiscal session unrepresented. -
A new report details the death of a patient who died after being physically and chemically restrained. -
A judge says an election to fill the Northwest Arkansas senate seat must occur sooner than a timeline set by Gov. Sarah Sanders -
Crowds packed the streets of downtown Little Rock Saturday for the “No Kings” Protest. This was the second nationwide day of protests against the administration of President Donald Trump. -
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wants to hold a special election next summer, while locals want it sooner.
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A new report from the Arkansas Department of Education shows unsurprising trends in the implementation data. -
Ret. Col. Conrad Reynolds is a former candidate and political activist interested in changing the way Arkansas counts votes. A warrant says he took it too far. -
A resident of Arkansas Senate District 26 says the date to fill a vacant position is too far away.
