Maxwell School News and Commentary

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. 

“Title 42 is only the most recent of a long history of using health concerns as a justification for free movement restrictions," says Elizabeth Cohen, professor of political science. "For example, it was only in 2010 that restrictions were removed on the entry of persons who are HIV positive."

"People are looking for that kind of connection, and if they can find it with a group that they don't know online, they don't necessarily see the bad parts of what's happening," says Shana Gadarian, professor and chair of political science. "Then with the technological part of it where extreme voices get more airtime on the internet, you can see how people get radicalized."

An Economist/YouGov poll last week asked respondents whether or not they wanted Trump to run for president again in 2024. A resounding 57 percent said no, while just 30 percent said yes. “That is the lane” for other Republican candidates says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

"Simply put, secession is a political solution for an ethnonational problem among regionally concentrated populations. The problem in America is one of political polarization," writes Ryan Griffiths, associate professor of political science.

Discussing the AR-15's appeal on the right, Grant Reeher, professor of political science, tells Newsweek: "In large part, I think it's because this particular rifle has become such a public target for Democrats and liberals regarding gun regulation and control. ...The rifle has become a symbol of the debate over gun control, and the political right is more associated with gun ownership and rights."