Raised in
South Brunswick, New Jersey, Portnoy graduated from
South Brunswick High School in 1999 and received the school's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012. Portnoy reported for
WSYR-AM and produced at
WSTM-TV and WIXT-TV (now
WSYR-TV) while he was a student at the S.I. Newhouse School for Public Communications at
Syracuse University. From 2003 until 2006, Portnoy reported for ABC-owned
WMAL Radio in Washington, where he covered local news in the greater Washington area. Beginning in 2006, Portnoy covered legal affairs and breaking stories for ABC News Radio. He was also a regular host of
Ahead of the Curve, a technology-based talk show on
ABC News Now, the network's 24/7 digital TV platform. In 2015, Portnoy became a congressional correspondent for CBS News Radio. He was later tasked with covering both the Trump and Biden administrations. In July 2019, Portnoy was elected to a three-year term on the board of the White House Correspondents' Association, serving as its president from July 2021-July 2022. He hosted the WHCA's first dinner after the
COVID-19 pandemic, which featured
Trevor Noah as the headline entertainer. In 2023, Portnoy returned to ABC News Radio as a national correspondent. He helped lead the network's reporting on the
2024 presidential election, covered each of Donald Trump's criminal trials and makes regular appearances on the daily ABC News podcast, "Start Here." == Awards and recognition ==