Northwestern experts available on the 2026 elections

Politics, institutions and public policy expert

Associate Professor, Political Science and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research

• tabitha.bonilla@northwestern.edu

• Campaign promises  
• Political messaging 
• Political representation 
• Voting behavior 

Urban politics, race, ethnic and Latino and Chicago politics expert

Associate Professor of Instruction, Political Science

• (847) 467-0706
• j-dominguez@northwestern.edu

• Race and ethnicity 
• Immigration 
• Urban politics 
• Latino politics 
• Chicago politics 

Campaign and elections expert

Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Political Science
Faculty Fellow and Associate Director, Institute for Policy Research

• (847) 467-1147
• l-harbridge@northwestern.edu

• American politics
• Impact of rising political violence
• Political parties and partisan conflict
• Congressional elections
• Primary elections

Campaign persuasion tactics

Associate Professor, Political Science and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research

• 847.491.5001
• alex.coppock@northwestern.edu

• Campaign persuasion tactics

Politics & race relations expert

Professor of political science and African American studies
Director, Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy

• (847) 467-4697
• alvin.tillery@northwestern.edu

• American politics
• Race relations
• Presidential leadership
• Affirmative action and diversity politics
• Voting access
• Polling

Wealth in politics

Associate Professor

• (847) 491-2589
• stephen-nelson@northwestern.edu

• Comparative politics
• International relations
• International organizations
• International law

Candidate Electability

Assistant Professor; Faculty Associate, Institute for Policy Research

• Political communication
• Political participation
• Race, ethnicity and politics
• Voter attitudes toward LGBTQ candidates
• Citizen-to-citizen political persuasion

Race, gender, public institutions and political behavior expert

Associate Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, School of Education and Social Policy

• (847) 491-5001
• sally.nuamah@northwestern.edu

• Feminist and gender studies
• Race, ethnicity and politics
• Education policy
• Political behavior

Campaign finance, voting rights, redistricting and judicial elections expert

Class of 1940 Professor of Law

• (312) 503-7344
• mkang@northwestern.edu

• Election law 
• Voting rights and redistricting 
• Campaign finance 
• Judicial elections 

Constitutional law and rule of law expert

Frederic P. Vose Professor of Law

• 312-503-7617
• paul.gowder@law.northwestern.edu

• Constitutional law
• Critical race theory
• Political, moral and legal philosophy
• Law and technology 

Voting rights and redistricting expert

Assistant Professor of Law

• (312) 503-5075
• chika.okafor@law.northwestern.edu

• Voting rights and redistricting
• Prosecutorial behavior, elections and mass incarceration
• Social network discrimination — why smaller groups receive fewer opportunities even under race-neutral rules

Social media and intergroup attitudes expert

Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management

• william.brady@kellogg.northwestern.edu

• Misinformation and online outrage
• Human psychology and digital social contexts shape emotions and intergroup attitude

Political persuasion, AI and polarization expert

Associate Professor of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management

• jacob.teeny@kellogg.northwestern.edu

• The persuasion of political ads 
• How campaigns use AI to tailor ads to individual voters
• How to make bipartisan conversations productive
• Why partisans dig in on hot-button issues and what actually changes minds

Elections and campaigns, voter behavior and misinformation expert

Professor of Communication Studies in the School of Communication and director of The Center for Communication and Public Policy

• (607) 280-7030
• erik.nisbet@northwestern.edu

• Voter Behavior & Public Opinion
• Political Advertising
• Campaign Strategy and Communications
• Mis/Disinformation
• Digital Media Strategies
• Artificial Inteligence in Political Messaging

Misinformation and fake news expert

Professor of psychology and of learning sciences

• (847) 467-1871
• rapp@northwestern.edu

• Fake news and media literacy
• Processing inaccurate information
• Source credibility
• Narrative and expository comprehension
• Data visualization
• Persuasion

Misinformation and fake news expert

Associate Professor of Communication Studies in the School of Communication, Director of the Center of Media Psychology and Social Influence (COM-PSI) at Northwestern

• nathan.walter@northwestern.edu

• Why misinformation sticks — and why corrections fail
• Fact-checking: What works, what doesn’t, and for whom
• Conspiracy theories and political polarization
• How emotions fuel misinformation
• Parasocial relationships: Influencers vs. experts

Political communication, misinformation, and generative AI expert

Assistant Professor of Communication Studies in the School of Communication, Director of Computational Media and Politics Lab.

• yingdan@northwestern.edu

• Multimodal misinformation and disinformation
• Generative AI and synthetic media
• Influencers, fandom and political engagement
• Credibility and persuasion

Presidential and party politics expert

Associate professor of history

• 847-491-7172
• m-allen1@northwestern.edu

• The realignment of U.S. party politics since WWII
• 20th century U.S. political and diplomatic history 
• Presidential politics 

Expert on political extremism and Christian nationalism

Associate Professor of History

• (847) 491-3406
• belew@northwestern.edu

• Christian Nationalism
• Gun violence/mass violence/school shootings
• Political polarization and division
• Extremism, political violence
• Racism and inequality
• Belew’s book “Bring the War Home” established her as the foremost historian of the modern white power movement. 

Expert on American history since 1900

William Smith Mason Professor of American History

• 847-491-4963
• kevin.boyle@northwestern.edu

• Race and politics in Chicago 
• Political violence
• The civil rights movement 
• Economic and labor history 
• His book "The Shattering: America in the 1960s," is a narrative history of the decade whose conflicts shattered America’s postwar order and divide us still. 

TV news, conservative media and political movements expert

Cardiss Collins Professor of Communication Studies and Journalism

• heather.hendershot@northwestern.edu

• Political conventions (recent book "When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America")
• Broadcast media (mainstream and conservative; Open to Debate: How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line) 
• Political culture 

Expert on the modern presidency

Professor of journalism

• slevin@northwestern.edu

• Barack and Michelle Obama: The White House years and after
• The media and truth-telling in the Trump era
• U.S. foreign policy and the modern presidency

Expert on the American Empire

Bergen Evans Professor in the Humanities

• daniel.immerwahr@northwestern.edu

• US foreign relations
• Global history
• Environmental history
• Author of "How to Hide an Empire: a History of the Greater United States"