Tankersley joined National Journal from the Tribune Washington Bureau, where he covered energy, the environment and politics, with a heavy focus on economic issues during the 2008 presidential campaign, for newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.

He previously worked at the Toledo Blade, the Rocky Mountain News and The Oregonian. Tankersley and a colleague at The Blade won the 2007 Livingston Award for Young Journalists for their “Business as Usual” series of stories revealing the true roots of Ohio’s economic decline. He was also part of the “Coingate” team at the Toledo Blade that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Tankersley is an Oregon native and 2000 graduate of Stanford University.