The Logic of American Politics

Samuel Kernell is distinguished emeritus professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught since 1977. Kernell's research interests focus on the presidency, political communication, and American political history. His books include Veto Rhetoric: A Leadership Strategy for Divided Government; Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership, 4th edition; Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections, 2nd edition (with Gary C. Jacobson); and Party Ballots, Reform, and the Transformation of America's Electoral System (with Erik J. Engstrom). He has also edited Parallel Politics: Economic Policymaking in Japan and the United States; The Politics of Divided Government (with Gary W. Cox); and James Madison: The Theory and Practice of Republican Government. He is presently writing an intellectual biography of James H. Rowe.

Gary C. Jacobson is distinguished emeritus professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, where he taught from 1979 to 2016. He previously taught at Trinity College; the University of California, Riverside; Yale University; and Stanford University. Jacobson specializes in the study of U.S. elections, parties, interest groups, public opinion, and Congress. He is the author of Money in Congressional Elections; The Politics of Congressional Elections, 10th edition; The Electoral Origins of Divided Government; A Divider, Not a Uniter: George W. Bush and the American People, 2nd edition; and Presidents and Parties in the Public Mind; he is the coauthor of Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections, 2nd edition. Jacobson is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Thad Kousser is professor of political science and co-director of the Yankelovich Center 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 and recent editions of Politics in the American States. Kousser has been awarded the UCSD Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award, has served as coeditor of the journals State Politics and Policy Quarterly and Legislative Studies Quarterly.

Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a contributor to the New York Times. She is the author of The Bitter End: The 2020 Presidential Campaign and the Challenge to American Democracy, and the award-winning books, Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America and The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Campaign. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Andrew F. Carnegie Fellowship, and she has served on the advisory boards of both the British and American National Election Studies. At UCLA she teaches courses on campaigns, elections, and public opinion.