Maxwell School News

"It's hurt the general population's views of him, but it's fueled and strengthened his base, and even driven some Republicans on the fence to 'stay loyal' to the cause," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. "Trump has been trying to wear these legal troubles as a badge of honor for his victimization, and of his commitment to his supporters."

The Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship (IDJC) is launching The Deciders Focus Groups project, a partnership initiative looking to gain insights from key voting blocs in 2024 presidential election battleground states. NBC News plans to report findings each month.

"Smoother, more refined, younger, better informed on the issues, but still aggressive on policy and willing to fight the cultural battles the Right seems to care about. Is that enough to persuade a loyal Republican voter, who is weighing that against a proven battler? Apparently not," says Grant Reeher, director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute.

"Doing well in New Hampshire or doing better than expected can give campaign attention and a sense of momentum that will bring new media attention as well as donations and support from party members in states that come later in the process," says Shana Gadarian, associate dean for research and professor of political science.

“The party didn’t coalesce around one alternative to Trump, and that’s what the skeptics needed,” says Shana Gadarian, associate dean for research and professor of political science.

Grant Reeher, professor of political science, tells Newsweek that Trump will continue to use his legal difficulties to rile up his MAGA base. However, Reeher adds that it remains to be seen if this will ultimately damage Trump's White House ambitions.

Simon Weschle, associate professor of political science, contributed a chapter titled "Campaign Finance" to the book "The Political Economy of Lobbying: Channels of Influence and their Regulation" (Springer, 2024).

“The independents that are part of the polling…don’t like either of them. And then, of course the Democrats in the polls are not going to give Trump any positive ratings, and Republicans are not going to give Biden any positive ratings,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

"Having the turnover in the organization that he's had is nowhere near the chaos that the disrupter in chief caused both as a candidate and as president," Grant Reeher, professor of political science, says of DeSantis's aim to be a drama-free Trump. "So in that sense, then that claim is still reasonably valid. I don't know what it gets him."

“Some of these polls are really in a way approval ratings of President Biden, which we know are not great,” says Grant Reeher, director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. “So it’s not so much people saying I’d rather have Donald Trump than Joe Biden, it’s people saying I’m not happy with where the country is going, and I want an alternative.”

"It is clear that, whatever Trump actually believed, he himself did not mean his pronouncements of election fraud to be taken as mere opinion. When Trump made such claims, he invariably portrayed them not only as true but proven conclusively, albeit by evidence he never produced," writes Dana Radcliffe, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs.

“We are entering contentious electoral cycles on both sides of the border, with voters going to the ballot box in June 2024 in Mexico and November 2024 for the U.S. The scourge of drug trafficking and ineffective government responses to organized crime will figure prominently in stump speeches,” writes Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, says that once the attack on the Capitol began, Trump had options he did not use. “He should respond to his constitutional responsibilities to protect the security of the United States when there’s an assault on our democratic process,” Banks says of Trump.

"The state’s new election system, combining nonpartisan primaries and instant-runoff general election voting, makes elections more competitive and encourages cooperative governance," writes Richard Barton, assistant teaching professor of public administration and international affairs.

“This kind of division is one we’ve seen for a very long time and so there is nothing new here. This was evident when McCarthy got the position in the first place—on the 15th vote—and that got a lot of attention,” Grant Reeher, professor of political science, tells The Hill.

“This kind of division is one we’ve seen for a very long time and so there is nothing new here. This was evident when McCarthy got the position in the first place—on the 15th vote—and that got a lot of attention,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

"In Trump’s case, the problem is that, while some of his actions are consistent with his believing the fraud claims, his behavior generally between the election and Jan. 6 is much more consistent with his knowing those claims were false and continuing to assert them publicly in an attempt to hold on to the presidency," writes Dana Radcliffe, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs.

“We’re at a different point now because people know this about him. The question will be what new information about him that is going to be relevant to people’s decision is going to be imparted,” says Grant Reeher, director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute.