Maxwell School News and Commentary

“There are enough moderate Republicans in the House, along with Democrats in the House, to pass a spending bill out of the House that they know the Senate Democrats, which control the Senate, would agree to,” says Chris Faricy, associate professor of political science. “But in doing that, you risk a backlash from the Freedom Caucus.”

“These indictments aren’t endearing independents to Trump,” says Shana Gadarian, professor and chair of political science, noting that in the last election, independents were key to Mr. Biden’s victory in pivotal battleground states. 

Entitled “Like-minded Sources on Facebook Are Prevalent but Not Polarizing” and co-authored by Assistant Professor of Political Science Emily Thorson, this groundbreaking research published in Nature uses an on-platform experiment to examine what happens when Facebook users see dramatically less content from people who share their political leanings.

"Given how partisan and ideologically extreme most politicians still are, are nonpartisan primaries really enough to save American democracy? While we’re already seeing improvements in the states that have them, the tide won’t fully change until a critical mass of politicians are freed from partisan primaries at the state and national level," writes Richard Barton, assistant teaching professor of policy studies and public administration and international affairs.

"Like-minded sources on Facebook are prevalent but not polarizing," co-authored by Assistant Professor of Political Science Emily Thorson, was published in Nature. The study is focused on the prevalence and effects of "echo chambers" on social media.

Grant Reeher, professor of political science, tells Newsweek that a crowded primary field benefited Trump in 2016 when the higher number of candidates allowed Trump to win the primary with only about 45 percent of the vote.

While Trump’s “most diehard supporters are always going to be supporters no matter what…some people who are on the margins, part of the 40 percent that voted for him a couple of times, will tend to peel away,” says William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

"DeSantis would most benefit from Trump dropping out of the race but he seems to have calculated that they have many of the same potential voters so doesn't want to alienate them," says Shana Gadarian, professor and chair of political science.

"Racial resentment and support for COVID-19 travel bans in the United States," co-authored by Professor and Chair of Political Science Shana Gadarian was published in Political Science Research and Methods.

“It turns out that partisanship just swamped everything else as early as March of 2020," says Shana Gadarian, professor and chair of political science.