������Ƶ

We also have sources who can address female candidates, how they are portrayed and the history of women in politics.

This guide will be updated regularly throughout the election cycle. This list was updated up through January 2021.

Elections, electoral systems, voting behavior, race and elections

, assistant professor of political science, blogs on applying spatial models to current questions and issues in American politics at . He has also consulted for political campaigns on statistical modeling issues. 

Hare’s substantive research agenda focuses on ideology and voting behavior in the American electorate, campaign strategy, and political polarization. Methodologically, his work focuses on measurement theory and ideal point estimation, Bayesian methods, and the application of machine learning techniques to model political behavior. He also studies swing voters. Contact: 530-754-0942, cdhare@ucdavis.edu

Lecturer of political science focuses on electoral systems, legislative representation, political behavior and public opinion. His dissertation project focuses on how electoral systems shape electoral outcomes and candidate behavior. He is also involved in projects analyzing how racial attitudes affect voter behavior and legislative representation, particularly in recent U.S. elections. In a , “Racial attitudes & political cross-pressures in nationalized elections: The case of the Republican coalition in the Trump era,” co-authored with , University of Texas-El Paso, he found that there continue to be large numbers of racially conservative Democrats who can be persuaded to vote for Republicans candidates. Contact: idhale@ucdavis.edu

, associate professor of political science, studies voting behavior, parties' election strategies, and mass-elite linkages in Western Europe and the United States. His work encompasses spatial models of party competition, and empirical analyses of parties' policy programs and of election outcomes. He recently co-authored an in the Washington Post about voters’ opinions about “the other side” in elections. His latest book is , Cambridge University Press (2020). Contact: jfadams@ucdavis.edu

Presidential transitions

Lawsuits, challenges to vote count

, the Boochever and Bird Endowed Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality and Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the School of Law, can address the validity of Donald Trump’s lawsuits regarding the voting process and election. Bhagwat practiced appellate and regulatory law for two years in the Washington, D.C. offices of the Sidley & Austin law firm. He has written about a variety of subjects ranging from the structure of constitutional rights, to free speech law, to the ������Ƶ Electricity Crisis. Contact: aabhagwat@ucdavis.edu

The New Deal, historic presidencies, electoral college

, distinguished professor of history, is an expert on the New Deal and the Second World War, and is prepared to talk about politics and policies designed to thwart fascism.

He commented this spring in a Huffington Post that compared President Hoover’s presidency to Trump’s, citing failures to act and use presidential authorities in a crisis. He explained how presidential transitions work in the podcast featured in this article, citing the transition from Hoover to Roosevelt as a troubling one. He is interviewed in this Politifact , as well, about how two things, historically, doom former presidents seeking a second term: a bad economy and significant events that get out of control.

He has contributed to The New York Times and The Washington Post and appeared on BBC Radio 4 and NPR. His books include Winter War: Hoover, Roosevelt, and the First Clash Over the New Deal (2018) and The Money Makers: How Roosevelt and Keynes Ended the Depression, Defeated Fascism, and Secured a Prosperous Peace (2015). Contact: 530-754-1646, earauchway@ucdavis.edu

Constitutional law, treason, impeachment

, professor of law, is a scholar of American constitutional law and Anglo-American legal history. His scholarship addresses a wide range of issues, including enemy combatant detentions, legacy preferences in public universities, the historical basis of Second Amendment rights, and parents’ rights to name their children. 

Larson is one of the nation’s leading authorities on the law of treason and is the author of the book  (Oxford University Press). He talks about his book in this .

His scholarship has been cited by numerous federal and state courts and has been profiled in The New York Times, The Economist, TIME, and many other publications. He is a frequent commentator for the national media on constitutional law issues. He appeared on the PBS series "Open Mind" in December.

Contact: 530-754-5731, clarson@ucdavis.edu

Leadership and inconsistency

, Stephen G. Newberry Chair in Leadership in the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, studies how organizations, their leaders and individuals acquire and maintain images, identities and reputations. She is the author of the book, Organizational Perception Management. Elsbach says, “People in Western society do not like inconsistency in their leaders. It’s what gets a lot of leaders tripped up. There is so much pressure on leaders to be consistent that it outweighs the need to make the right decision or to be accurate.” Contact: 530-752-0910, kdelsbach@ucdavis.edu

Presidency and the Supreme Court

professor of law, has commented to media recently on matters concerning the U.S. Supreme Court and presidential appointments. Most recently, he wrote "How to Fix the Supreme Court" in the New York Times. His teaching and research interests include constitutional law, federal courts and education law. His “Rethinking Political Power in Judicial Review,”won the American Association of Law Schools 2018 Scholarly Paper Competition. Tang also writes frequently about the Supreme Court for broader popular audiences. Contact: 203-507-4715, aatang@ucdavis.edu

Election law

, professor of law, has teaching and research interests that include election law, property and land-use law, statutory interpretation and administrative law. Contact: cselmendorf@ucdavis.edu

Conspiracy theories; roots of modern conservatism

Professor of history has long investigated conspiracy theories, from the Kennedy assassination to 9/11, and many that have cropped up since, even during the primary and general elections. She authored Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 (2009); it was reissued this year with a on the Trump era. She has also written op-eds comparing Watergate and the Trump impeachment inquiry in  and .

In her recent research, she also has re-examined the labor disputes in Depression-era ������Ƶ that led ������Ƶ’s businessmen and media to create a new style of politics with corporate funding, intelligence gathering, professional campaign consultants and alliances between religious and economic conservatives. She has been featured in various podcasts and other media, and commented about modern conservatism in this podcast. Her 2015 book is . Contact: 530-752-7764, ksolmsted@ucdavis.edu

Climate and diplomacy

Many experts on climate, natural resources, water availability and other issues are available on this list.

Tariffs and trade, the economy

UC Davis has experts on agricultural and corporate tariffs, and their effects on consumers, in a tariffs and trade expert list. Professor of Economics Kadee Russ, on this list, can discuss the selection of Janet Yellen as head of the U.S. Treasury Department.

Women, politics, voting rights

, associate professor of history, is a specialist in U.S. women’s political history. She has researched the history of African American women’s mobilization as voters, suffragists, canvassers and candidates. African American women were at the forefront of the struggle for voting rights during the 19th and 20th centuries, and it is this longstanding leadership that helped to pave a political path for the election of President Barack Obama, she wrote in a  article. She also did a UC Davis Live broadcast on the in current elections. She has written and spoken about the role of Puerto Rico in the current and past elections. She is author of the 2009 book . She is co-editor of . Contact: lgmaterson@ucdavis.edu

How female candidates are portrayed, evaluated

Rachel Bernhard is an assistant professor of political science who studies how female candidates are portrayed and evaluated. She received her doctoral degree in political science from UC Berkeley where she looked at how voters evaluate female candidates for office, particularly in low-information environments. She also served as postdoctoral prize fellow in politics at Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. In fall 2019 she taught a graduate seminar entitled “Identity and Discrimination in U.S. Politics.” She previously taught graduate courses on computational methods and undergraduate courses on research design and methods, political psychology, and democratic accountability. She worked for a few years in public health and education. Contact: ribernhard@ucdavis.edu

Vice president-elect Harris, leadership, race, gender

Additional experts specifically related to Biden’s historic choice of Kamala Harris are listed here. UC Davis research on the gender gap, elections and women’s history in the electorate is available here. 

Social media

How media use and political talk influence the political divide

, professor of communication at UC Davis and associate researcher (ERC SG PI), University of Amsterdam, co-wrote an about the Democratic primaries after Kamala Harris dropped out of the race. The article, “What Kamala Harris supporters’ media consumption habits say about who they might support next in the Democratic presidential primary” was published in the United States Politics and Policy Blog, London School of Economics. She also co-authored an op-ed in The Conversation, “.” Wojcieszak is interested in how the changing media environment creates both opportunities and challenges for informed publics, tolerant citizenry, and responsive governance. She also researches the role of social media in elections. Read this about her research. Contact: mwojcieszak@ucdavis.edu 

 studies people's behaviors in online social networks and virtual worlds. Recently, she has taken an interest in the reaction to and diffusion of online misinformation and how it can be corrected, e