MILWAUKEE _ There’s lots of ground to cover in the 2018 midterm elections, from flipping seats and voter suppression to a high-stakes, nationally relevant race for Wisconsin governor. Experts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are available to discuss various dimensions of the 2018 midterm elections.
The Media Services team at UWM is available to help facilitate interview requests. Please email [email protected] for urgent requests, and the first available team member will respond. You can also email the faculty experts directly or call Angela McManaman at 414-229-5703 for help reaching them.
The experts list is linked from the university’s media page, as well.
Statewide races and outcomes
Kathleen Dolan
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Kathleen Dolan is a distinguished professor of political science who can speak in general terms about the 2018 midterm elections and legislative politics. Her research interests include women in politics, and she is the author of When Does Gender Matter? Women Candidates and Gender Stereotypes in American Elections.
Thomas Holbrook
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Thomas Holbrook is a distinguished professor of political science and the Wilder Crane Professor of Government. He can speak to political behavior, campaigns and elections, and state politics, and is author of the 2017 book Altered States: Changing Populations, Changing Parties, and the Transformation of the American Political Landscape.
Joseph Rodriguez
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History Professor Joseph Rodriguez can discuss Latino voting trends, turnout and get-out-the-vote efforts aimed at this important segment of the electorate. He can also discuss why Latinos might be hesitant to vote, including lack of citizenship and fear of deportation.
Paru Shah
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Associate Professor of Political Science Paru Shah can discuss voter turnout, particularly among voters of color in Milwaukee and other urban communities.
Congressional races and outcomes: House and Senate
Kathleen Dolan
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Kathleen Dolan is a distinguished professor of political science who can speak in general terms about the 2018 midterm elections and legislative politics. Among her research specialties is the topic of women in politics, and she is the author of When Does Gender Matter? Women Candidates and Gender Stereotypes in American Elections.
Hong Min Park
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Associate Professor of Political Science Hong Min Park studies Congress and can speak in general terms about U.S. House and Senate races, why districts flip in midterm elections and related issues.
Issues affecting voter turnout and behavior:
LGBT+ identity, Supreme Court, tariffs, trade
Sara Benesh
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Sara Benesh is an associate professor of political science focusing on judicial decision making and the judiciary, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Benesh is a regular contributor to Washington University Law’s Supreme Court Database. She can discuss the nomination process for Supreme Court justices, public views of the court’s historical and political significance, its recent rulings on voting rights and gerrymandering and redistricting, and how the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh intersects with the midterm elections.
Cary Gabriel Costello
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Associate Professor of Sociology Cary Gabriel Costello is a gender scholar and director of the LGBT Studies program in UWM’s College of Letters & Science. Costello can discuss how gender and LGBT issues intersect with the 2018 midterm elections. Costello also teaches a sociology course titled “Solving Social Problems,” and he can address the broader issue of political polarization – why it is rising and why people worry about it.
Hamid Mohtadi
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Professor of Economics Hamid Mohtadi is an expert in development and international economics and can discuss the current effects and potential future outcomes of the Trump administration’s tariff wars with China and Europe.
American issues during the midterms: economics, foreign policy, media, religion and taxes
Christopher Cantwell
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Christopher Cantwell is a historian of American evangelicalism who focuses on politics, in addition to topics such as the history of labor and the working class. He has written about Christian Socialism and leftist Christianity around issues of economic inequality and labor activism.
Richard Grusin
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Richard Grusin is a distinguished professor of English and director of the Center for 21st Century Studies at UWM. Grusin’s writings have been translated into more than six languages, and he has taught around the world and appeared at numerous international conferences. In mid-November, he’ll visit UW-Madison to deliver his talk: “The Trump Show: Terrorism and Total Mediation.” Grusin also can speak about the history and significance of the National Parks Service.
Shale Horowitz
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Professor of Political Science Shale Horowitz can discuss U.S. relations with China, Russia and the Middle East, along with terrorism, oil prices and other factors driving U.S. foreign policy.
Gladys Mitchell-Walthour
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Associate professor of public policy and political economy in the department of African & African Diaspora Studies, Gladys Mitchell-Walthour can discuss Brazilian political identity and how Afro-Brazilians and other Brazilians of color are responding to their country’s incoming right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro. She is the author of The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political Behavior in Contemporary Brazil.
Hamid Mohtadi
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Professor of Economics Hamid Mohtadi is an expert in development and international economics and can discuss the current effects and potential future outcomes of the Trump administration’s tariff wars with China and Europe.
Jeffrey Sommers
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Professor Jeffrey Sommers is affiliated with UWM’s departments of African & African Diaspora Studies and Global Studies as well as the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia. He can discuss how growing economic inequality has affected voting behavior, especially in calls for tax reform. He also can speak to the rise of “fake news” and fake grassroots groups known as “astroturf” organizations.
Natasha Borges Sugiyama
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An associate professor of political science and director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Natasha Borges Sugiyama specializes in Brazilian politics. She can discuss government programs that are popular in Brazil, how they impact Brazilians, and the people and programs that might be affected by funding cuts proposed by Brazil’s incoming right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro.
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