Tim Walz (left), J.D. Vance (right)

Source Alert

Walz vs. Vance debate: USC experts available for comment

October 01, 2024

Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance will face off in their first scheduled debate on Tuesday, Oct. 1. USC experts are available for pre- and post-debate comment and analysis.

Contact: Nina Raffio, raffio@usc.edu or (213) 442-8464; USC Media Relations, uscnews@usc.edu or (213) 740-2215

Campaigns, Polls and Voters

Mindy RomeroMindy Romero is a political sociologist whose research focuses on political behavior and patterns of voting and political underrepresentation, particularly among youth and communities of color in California and the U.S. She is the founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the USC Price School of Public Policy.

Contact: msromero@usc.edu

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Bob ShrumBob Shrum is the director of the Center for the Political Future and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in practical politics at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

A renowed political strategist, Shrum has served as speechwriter for Senator George McGovern and Senator Edward Kennedy, as well as a strategist in numerous winning campaigns at various levels of government, including for Joe Biden, John Kerry and Al Gore in presidential races.

Contact: shrum@usc.edu

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Christian R. GroseChristian Grose is an expert on American government, political representation, polling and elections. Grose is a professor of political science and public policy at USC Dornsife and academic director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy at USC Price.

Related article: Polls get a lot of hype, but what do they really tell us? A Q&A with polling pro Christian Grose

Contact: cgrose@usc.edu

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Morris LevyMorris Levy is an expert on race, ethnicity and politics; demographics; immigration policy and attitudes toward immigration in the U.S. and Europe; and voter ID laws and behavior. Levy is an assistant professor of political science at USC Dornsife.

Available for interviews in Spanish.

Contact: morrisl@usc.edu

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Kamy AkhavanKamy Akhavan is an expert on the origins of and solutions to political polarization, improving interpersonal communication, the power of debate, nonprofit leadership, digital marketing, civics education and how to teach controversial issues. Akhavan is executive director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future.

Contact: kakhavan@usc.edu

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Jeff Blattner

Jeff Blattner, a Fall 2024 fellow at the USC Dornsife Center of the Political Future, is an expert on the U.S. Supreme Court’s powerful role in American politics and the role of politics in the decisions of the Court. Blattner is the former Judiciary Committee Chief Counsel for Sen. Edward Kennedy and the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Contact: raffio@usc.edu and uscnews@usc.edu

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Political Communications

Marty Kaplan

Martin Kaplan is an expert in politics, journalism and entertainment whose research interests include campaign coverage on TV news; the use of narrative change to effect social and cultural change; and the impact of the attention economy on democracy.

In the Carter Administration, Kaplan was chief speechwriter to Vice President Walter Mondale. In Mondale’s 1983-84 bid for the presidency, Kaplan was a deputy campaign manager whose portfolio included issues, speechwriting and media strategy.

Since 2000, Kaplan has held USC’s Norman Lear endowed chair and directed the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, a nonpartisan research and public policy center that has been studying the social, political, economic and cultural impact of entertainment and media for more than 20 years. Kaplan is also a research professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Contact: martyk@usc.edu

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Steve Caplan

Steve Caplan is an expert in digital media, political advertising and political communications strategy. An adjunct instructor at USC Annenberg, Caplan is also the founder of Message, an award-winning strategic communications and marketing firm based in LA. Before launching Message, Caplan was a partner at GMMB, one of the nation’s leading cause marketing firms and the agency of record for the Obama 2008 campaign.

Related article: Political advertising in the 2024 election: Q&A with USC’s Steve Caplan

Contact: scaplan@usc.edu

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Tim Walz image: Courtesy of the State of Minnesota. JD Vance image: Courtesy of the State of Ohio.

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