Campaigns & Elections: Rules, Reality, Strategy, Choice

A contemporary and comprehensive approach to campaigns and elections―now updated through the 2012 elections.

The leading book in the market―now updated through the 2012 elections―makes a contemporary approach to campaigns and elections accessible and engaging. Based on the authors’ own courses, Campaigns & Elections uses a clear, consistent framework to help students understand the strategies and choices involved in American campaigns and elections. With coverage of elections at the presidential, congressional, state, and local levels, the book’s analysis balances the perspectives of political scientists and campaign practitioners.

John Sides (Vanderbilt University) studies elections, political campaigns, voter behavior, and public opinion. His work has appeared in numerous major journals. He is coauthor of three books about U.S. presidential elections: The Bitter End (with Lynn Vavreck and Chris Tausanovitch),  Identity Crisis (with Vavreck and Michael Tesler), and The Gamble (with Vavreck). He also co-founded and serves as publisher of Good Authority, a site about politics and political science.

Daron Shaw (University of Texas at Austin) has written three books and many articles on political campaigns, voting behavior, and public opinion. He worked as a strategist in the 2000 and 2004 Republican presidential election campaigns, serves on the national decision team for Fox News, and conducts the Fox News Poll.

Matt Grossmann (Michigan State University) is Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research. His books include Polarized by Degrees, How Social Science Got Better, Red State Blues, Asymmetric Politics, Artists of the Possible, and The Not-So-Special Interests. He hosts the Science of Politics podcast.

Keena Lipsitz (Queens College and The Graduate Center, CUNY) studies American elections, campaigns, and public opinion. She has published numerous articles in major journals and is the author of Competitive Elections and the American Voter, as well as a coauthor of Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation and What We Can Do About It. Her articles have also appeared in media outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.