Prior to joining the magazine, Barone was an editorial page staff member at The Washington Post from 1982 to 1989.  From 1974 to 1981 he was vice president of Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc., of Washington, a public opinion polling firm specializing in political campaigns.

Barone was born in Highland Park, Michigan, in 1944, the son Charles Gerald Barone, a surgeon, and Alice Darcy Baron, a teacher.  He was brought up in Detroit and Birmingham, Michigan.  He graduated from Cranbrook School in 1962, Harvard College (magna cum laude) in 1966 and Yale Law School in 1969.  He was editor of the Harvard Crimson and the Yale Law Journal.  He worked on numerous political campaigns from 1964 to 1972 in Michigan and other states and was a summer intern to Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh of Detroit in 1967 and 1968.  He served as a law clerk to Judge Wade H. McCree, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1969 to 1971.

Barone is the principal co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, a text issued every other year since the 1972 edition and nominated for a National Book Award.  He is also the author of Our Country: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan (Macmillan Free Press, 1990), The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again (Regnery, 2001), and Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Competition for the Nation's Future (Crown Forum, 2004).  He has published articles in publications including: the Harvard Crimson; Yale Law Review; Washington Post; New York Times; The Wall Street Journal; Los Angeles Times; Newsday; Detroit Free Press; Detroit News; New Republic; National Review; Economist; Reader's Digest; Reason; American Spectator; Times Literary Supplement; and the Italian publication Libro Aperto.  In 1992, he received the Carey McWilliams Award from the American Political Science Association for "a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics."

Barone is a contributor to the Fox News Channel and has appeared as an analyst/commentator on various radio and television programs, including: The McLaughlin Group; NBC's Today; CBS This Morning; Good Morning America; The CBS News; NBC News; Cable News Network; C-SPAN; This Week with David Brinkley; and Meet the Press.

Michael Barone lives in Washington, D.C.  He has traveled to all 50 states and all 435 congressional districts.  He has also traveled to 37 foreign countries and has reported on recent elections in Russia, Mexico, Italy, and Britain.