Dave McNeely began reporting on Texas politics and government in 1962, as a political reporter and later editor of The University of Texas student newspaper.

In the years since, with breaks for a Congressional Fellowship in Washington, and a Nieman Fellowship for journalists at Harvard, he has covered most legislative sessions and Texas elections. For more than 20 years, he has written a column for the Austin American-Statesman.

McNeely's master's thesis in government was on the 1964 U.S. Senate race that George Bush lost. He first interviewed George W. Bush in 1978, when Bush was running for Congress.

An expert on Texas politics when he joined the Austin American-Statesman in 1978, McNeely is now the dean of the Texas Capitol press corps. His column is also carried in several other Texas newspapers.

McNeely has co-taught a course at The University of Texas on "The Press and Politics" -- first with Paul Begala, a consultant who with James Carville ran Bill Clinton's 1992 race, and then with Karl Rove, chief political adviser to George W. Bush as governor, and now as President.

McNeely was married to the late Carole Kneeland, an award-winning TV news reporter for Dallas and Houston TV stations, and later news director for KVUE-TV in Austin. Carole died of breast cancer in January of 1998. McNeely is on the board of The Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Television Journalism founded in her name, which hosts an annual seminar in Austin for local TV news executives from across the country to expose them to Carole’s unique style of newsroom management.

McNeely in late 2003 married Kathryn Longley, general counsel for the Texas Methodist Foundation. Between them they have five children and four grandchildren.

McNeely was born on June 12, 1940.