Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for Bloomberg News based in Washington D.C.

She follows the president and vice president around the country and the globe with a focus on telling stories about politics, policy, and the economy. She also authors a weekly newsletter, "Washington Edition: Inside the White House."

Gardner covered the historic 2024 presidential election for the wire service, traveling to every battleground state and reporting on campaign strategies, voter demographics and President Biden's unprecedented withdrawal from the race. 

She offered live coverage for Bloomberg TV from the only presidential debate between President Trump and Vice President Harris, along with throughout Election Night. For Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, she co-authored a cover story on Vice President Kamala Harris' 105-day candidacy.

Reporting abroad has taken her to India to cover Biden's G-20 summit trip, to Vietnam for its formal upgrade of its relationship with the US, and to the UK for Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. Recently, she joined Vice President JD Vance in Italy and India. 

She also joined Harris in Switzerland for the Ukraine peace summit and in the UAE for COP28. Additionally, she traveled with the vice president on a ten-day tour of Africa, where she reported on geopolitical tensions with China and Russia, along with the trip's significance to Black Americans. 

During the 2022 midterms, Gardner covered the record number of Black and Latino Republicans running for Congress, and wrote about how young voters played a pivotal role in Democrats gaining a Senate majority.

She has interviewed and written profiles on former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Council of Economic Advisors Chair Cecilia Rouse and Office and Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young.

Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, TIME, Fortune and Yahoo. She has also shared her reporting on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, NBC News Now and BBC.

In 2024, she was a National Press Foundation Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow. Before joining Bloomberg, Gardner interned with CNN in Washington D.C. and NBC News' TODAY Show in New York.

As a graduate of The Ohio State University, she produced an investigative documentary on allegations of a toxic mental health culture and unlicensed therapy under the former head coach of Ohio State's rowing team that won an award from the regional National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences chapter. She was also president of NABJ at OSU.

Gardner is the daughter of Jamaican immigrants and a Maryland native.