Lecture Summary: Parties and Elections in America, October 22-23, 2024

“Thus today there is no sign of great political parties in the United States” (Democracy in America).

Part 1 – October 22, 2024 – 5:00-6:30PM – Burgiss Theater, Trone Student Center

Part 2 – October 23, 2024 – 5:00-6:30PM – Watkins Room, Trone Student Center

Part 1 Speakers:

Erin Covey (The Cook Report with Amy Walter)

Erin Covey analyses the U.S. House of Representatives for The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. She is originally from San Antonio, Texas, though she grew up around the world as a member of a military family. Covey earned her BA from Liberty University, where she studied journalism and English and was a news editor at the school paper. Covey previously worked at Inside Elections, where she served as a reporter and analyst, as well as at National Journal, where she reported on campaigns and national politics as a writer and editor of Hotline’s Wake-Up Call and Latest Edition. She was also a news assistant for NPR’s Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. Erin has appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and Sirius XM, and her analysis has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Bloomberg News, and local news outlets across the country. She is a contributing author for the 2024 Almanac of American Politics and was a co-host of the Inside Elections Podcast.

Jessica Taylor ’07 (The Cook Report with Amy Walter)

Jessica Taylor is the Senate and Governors Editor for The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Before joining Cook, Taylor was a political reporter for NPR for five years, where she covered elections and breaking news, ranging from the White House to both chambers of Congress and statewide elections. An East Tennessee native, she graduated magna cum laude in 2007 with a BA in political science from Furman University, where she is a member of the Alumni Board. She is the first female senior author for The Almanac of American Politics in the book’s 50-year history, a role she held for both the 2022 and 2024 editions. Taylor has previously served as a senior analyst/reporter for The Rothenberg Political Report (now Inside Elections). Her quotes and analysis appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other publications. She has reported on politics for several prestigious outlets over the past decade — including the NBC News Political Unit, National Journal, POLITICO, and The Hill, where she served as campaign editor. She has appeared on PBS, MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN and CNN. Her expert analysis contributed to real-time election night coverage and analysis at CBS in 2012 and for C-SPAN in 2020 and 2022.

Part 2 Speakers:

Tim Alberta (The Atlantic)

Tim Alberta is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and staff writer for The Atlantic magazine. He formerly served as chief political correspondent for POLITICO. In 2019, he published the critically acclaimed book,  American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump and co-moderated the year’s final Democratic presidential candidate debate aired by PBS NewsHour. He attended Michigan State University, where his plans to become a baseball writer were changed by a stint covering the legislature in Lansing. He went on to spend more than a decade in Washington, reporting for publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Hotline, National Journal, and National Review. Alberta joined The Atlantic in March 2021 with a mandate to keep roaming and writing and telling stories that strike at the heart of America’s discontent. His work has been featured in dozens of other publications nationwide, including Sports Illustrated and Vanity Fair, and he frequently appears as a commentator on television programs in the United States and around the world. His newest book, and instant New York Times Bestseller, is The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in the Age of Extremism (2023).

Ruy Teixeira (American Enterprise Institute)

Ruy Teixeira is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on the transformation of party coalitions and the future of American electoral politics. Before joining AEI, he was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress from 2003 to 2022. Teixeira started his education at Yale University but left to pursue political interests. He eventually earned his BA from the University of Michigan and his MS and PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A political demographer and commentator, Teixeira is the author of numerous books, reports, and articles. He is the co-author of The Emerging Democratic Majority (2004), one of his most influential books, which was selected as one of the best books of the year by The Economist. He is also the co-author of a series of reports titled “States of Change,” which detail the impact of demographic changes on political parties, the electorate, and the nation. His most recent book is Where Have All the Democrats Gone? The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes (2023). His broadcast appearances include CBS News, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, and PBS, as well as hundreds of radio and podcast interviews. He is also often published in the popular press, including in The Atlantic, The American Prospect, National Review, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He coedits “The Liberal Patriot” blog on Substack.

View Part 1 Here

View Part 2 Here