Morgan Trau is an award-winning political and investigative reporter.

She is not afraid to ask the tough questions.

Morgan Trau is an award-winning Statehouse reporter for News 5 Cleveland, WCPO 9 News in Cincinnati, Scripps News and the Ohio Capital Journal. She is known for holding politicians accountable.

Morgan dives deep into trending legislation, which includes LGBTQ+ rights, abortion laws, education bills and anything deemed a hot topic. She found her niche in reporting on growing culture wars and the balance of power in state government. She specializes in long-form investigative pieces, consistently breaking original stories that earn national and international recognition. If she isn’t breaking a story, her reports contain in-depth analysis of policy language and impact.

Her work has appeared on or in ABC News, CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, the New Yorker, Politico, The Guardian, Times of Israel, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and more. Her reporting has also been cited in research papers, library databases, academic journals, testimonies and lawsuits. In 2023, she was chosen for the prestigious Kiplinger Fellowship.

She received the awards for Best Political/Government Reporter and Best Education Reporter from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. She recently was awarded the Ohio Education Association Media Award for Public Service for her coverage of public schools and policy impacting them. She has also won awards for her investigations into racial injustice, coverage of health disparities and live reporting in severe weather.

Before working for News 5, she was a political and investigative reporter in Michigan, the Washington/Idaho border and New York. Her reporting has made legislative changes in each of the areas she has worked in.

She was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Morgan graduated summa cum laude and at the very top of her class at Syracuse University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in May 2020. She graduated as a Syracuse University Scholar, the highest undergraduate honor given to a student.

During her senior year at Syracuse, Morgan reported for MSNBC on the increase of hate crimes at the university. While in college, she spent her summers working and training as an investigator with 60 Minutes and CBS News. She also worked for PBS NewsHour and Cleveland FOX 8. She also co-created and lead the organization Women in Communications, a Newhouse-affiliated group made up of 350+ students on campus. She was also an academic tutor, anchor and reporter for both Newhouse and CitrusTV, and volunteered at a non-profit dedicated to ending domestic violence. Morgan has volunteered with the National Council of Jewish Women in Cleveland for years.