Maxwell School News and Commentary

“The strategy is going to be walking a tight rope. You've got folks in the Freedom Caucus on the Republican Party in the House that want deeper cuts and more reassurances that these cuts are actually going to happen. And you've got moderate Republicans in the Senate that are worried about those cuts,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

Senator Booker's speech is intended to “bring attention to the threat that Booker and Democrats argue that Donald Trump poses to the health of American democracy and the welfare of the American public and be a rallying cry for other Democrats to act boldly with whatever means they have,” says Shana Gadarian, professor of political science.

Johanna Dunaway, professor of political science, has co-written “The House that Fox News Built? Representation, Political Accountability, and the Rise of Partisan News” (Cambridge University Press, 2025). The book scientifically examines the impact of partisan news on political elites. 

Mark Brockway, assistant teaching professor of political science, has co-authored “The Shadow Gospel: How Anti-liberal Demonology Possessed U.S. Religion, Media, and Politics” (The MIT Press, 2025). The book explores the American right, evangelical rhetoric and attacks on liberalism over the last eight decades.

“Because there's some evolutionary benefit in groups, I think one of the ways that politicians are quite effective at making people fearful is to make them fearful of groups that are different than themselves,” says Shana Gadarian, professor of political science and associate dean for research.

Partisan viewers “turn away in disgust when it’s the other side having that postelection euphoria,” says Johanna Dunaway, professor of political science and research director of the Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship. 

Professor of Political Science Shana Gadarian and co-authors conclude that polarization is a serious—if largely overlooked—determinant of health, whose impacts must be more thoroughly understood and mitigated. Published in Nature Medicine.

“In recent decades the country has gotten incredibly polarized politically. Both candidates have 43% in the bank no matter what. I think what the last week is about—it's not about persuasion, we're done with that—it's about mobilization, it's about turnout. The election is going to turn on turnout,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

“We know that Catholics are probably as divided as the rest of the electorate right now,” says Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science. “The election is extremely close by almost any standard and Catholics seem to be in many ways mirroring the American population in that regard,” she says.

“In some ways, you almost have two generic candidates running, one more conservative and one sort of more mainstream. And you’ve got a district that just seems more built for people who are closer to the center, in either party,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.