Peter Hancock

Peter Hancock joined the Capitol News Illinois team as a reporter in January 2019.

Before that, Hancock covered Kansas state government for much of the past two decades. For the previous 4 years, Hancock had been the statehouse reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World. He provided year-round daily coverage of the Kansas Statehouse, state government, appellate courts, elections and Kansas’ congressional delegation. He previously worked for 8 years as a statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, and with the Kansas Health Policy Authority and the Kansas Education Policy Report.

“As a longtime veteran of statehouse reporting in Kansas, I know how challenging it is for individual newspapers to make that kind of commitment,” Hancock said. “Capitol News Illinois offers a unique opportunity for newspapers throughout the state to pool their resources and enable a small team of reporters to deliver critical news and information about state government to communities throughout the state.

In Kansas, Hancock spent the better part of 20 years working in both print and broadcast journalism. He graduated from the University of Kansas with bachelor’s degrees in political science and secondary education. Although he was born and raised in the Kansas City area, he has deep family roots in central and southern Illinois.

He said coming to Springfield is "a bit like coming back home.”