Samuel Kernell is professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught since 1977. Previously, he taught at the University of Mississippi and the University of Minnesota. Kernell's research interests focus on the presidency and American political history. His previous books include Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership, 3rd edition; an edited collection of essays, James Madison: The Theory and Practice of Republican Government; and, with Gary C. Jacobson, The Logic of American Politics, 7th edition, and Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections, 2nd edition. Kernell's most recent book, Party Ballots, Reform and the Transformation of American Politics, (2015, with Erik Engstrom), won the APSA's David Greenstone Award for the best book in politics and history. Gary C. Jacobson is distinguished professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught since 1979. He previously taught at Trinity College, the University of California at Riverside, Yale University, and Stanford University. Jacobson specializes in the study of U.S. elections, parties, interest groups, and Congress. He is the author of Money in Congressional Elections: The Politics of Congressional Elections, Eighth Edition, The Electoral Origins of Dividend Government: Competition in the U.S. House Elections, 1946 - 1988, and A Divider, Not a Uniter: George W. Bush and the American People, Second Edition, and is coauthor with Samuel Kernell of Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections, Second Edition. Jacobson is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Thad Kousser is professor of political science and department chair at the University of California, San Diego. He has served as a legislative aide in the California, New Mexico, and U.S. senates. He is the author of Term Limits and the Dismantling of State Legislative Professionalism, coauthor of The Power of American Governors and The Logic of American Politics, and coeditor of The New Political Geography of California. Kousser has been awarded the UCSD Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award, has served as coeditor of State Politics and Policy Quarterly, and serves as coeditor for state and local politics of Legislative Studies Quarterly. Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA, a contributing columnist to The Upshot at The New York Times, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a recipient of the Andrew F. Carnegie Prize in the Humanities and Social Sciences and the author of five books, including Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America, named the most ominous book of 2018 by the Washington Post Book Review. Nate Silver dubbed her 2012 election book the definitive account of that election, and her book on messaging has been seen in the hands of more than a few presidential candidates and consultants. Her 2020 election project, NATIONSCAPE, is the largest study of presidential elections ever fielded in the United States. Interviewing more than 6,000 people a week, NATIONSCAPE will complete 500,000 interviews before the inauguration in 2021. At UCLA she teaches courses on campaigns, elections, public opinion, and the 1960s. Professor Vavreck holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester and held previous appointments at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and The White House. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, she remains a loyal Browns fan and is a known equestrian - to draw on a phrase from the 2012 presidential campaign.
