Father, Richard Harwood, was a reporter and writer for the Washington Post. Mother was an active campaigner for the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 and Harwood, at age 11, appeared in a TV ad for Kennedy's 1968 campaign.
A 1978 magna cum laude graduate of Duke University. Also served as a Newman Fellow at Harvard University.
Chief Washington correspondent for CNBC and a writer for the New York Times.