Henry J. Gomez is the political reporter for The Plain Dealer, the largest daily newspaper in swing state Ohio. His work appears regularly on cleveland.com.

Gomez’s coverage focuses on the 2012 presidential race, the U.S. Senate battle in Ohio between incumbent Sherrod Brown and challenger Josh Mandel and key U.S. House contests.

He wrote extensively about the closely watched March 2012 primary clash of Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Dennis Kucinich and moderated a high-profile debate between the two at the City Club of Cleveland. He will be a panelist for a fall City Club debate between Brown and Mandel.

Gomez also contributes to PolitiFact Ohio, the newspaper’s fact-checking project. His political stories and commentary have been featured on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” on SiriusXM Satellite Radio’s “The Press Pool,” in Columbia Journalism Review’s Swing States Project and in other national media. And he is a frequent guest on public affairs shows aired by Cleveland’s NPR and PBS affiliates.

Before being named The Plain Dealer’s political reporter in September 2011, Gomez routinely broke stories about corruption, dysfunction and mismanagement in Cuyahoga County government. As an investigative reporter he co-wrote a series of award-winning articles on police practices as Cleveland leaders fielded a series of brutality complaints.

Gomez also has covered Cleveland City Hall and, as a business writer, information technology and real estate.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Gomez’s first job in journalism was at the nearby Warren Tribune Chronicle, where he began as a part-time copy editor and quickly earned assignments as a general assignment reporter. He was part of the team that covered the 2002 racketeering trial of U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant, one of Youngstown’s most colorful political figures. Gomez also helped cover the election to replace Traficant in Congress.

He won a 2002 Pulliam Journalism Fellowship, an award that came with a paid, 10-week internship at the Indianapolis Star. After graduating from Youngstown State University with high honors, he interned at the Sacramento Bee in California, then took a job at Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Gomez has been with The Plain Dealer since March 2005.