Walter Shapiro, a political columnist whose career included stints as a presidential speechwriter, stand-up comic, professor, author and, as a recent college graduate, congressional candidate, died on July 21 in Manhattan. He was 77.

He began his career in journalism at Congressional Quarterly and went on to write for Washington Monthly, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, USA Today, The New Republic and Esquire. He later wrote for Salon, Yahoo News, Politics Daily and Roll Call.

In 2010, Mr. Shapiro won a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. At his death, he had written dozens of columns on the race between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump. Their presumptive face-off was the 12th presidential campaign he had covered.

In addition to his columns, Mr. Shapiro wrote two books, one about his grifter great-uncle who may, or may not, have fooled the Nazis into buying what they thought was a cargo of nickel — and of whom Mr. Shapiro admitted he was unduly proud.