Arlington, VA (May 7, 2024) – The Cook Political Report is proud to announce that Senior Editor & Elections Analyst David Wasserman has been named to the 2024 class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Wasserman, the lone journalist in the group, is one of 28 distinguished scholars who have been selected to receive a grant for research that seeks to understand how and why our society has become so polarized, and how we can strengthen the forces of cohesion to fortify our democracy.
“This year marks the first time the jury was asked to assess proposals addressing a single topic — the pervasive issue of political polarization as characterized by threats to free speech, the decline of civil discourse, disagreement over basic facts, and a lack of mutual understanding and collaboration,” said John J. DeGioia, chair of the jury and president of Georgetown University.
Wasserman’s winning proposal, Road Map to the Middle Ground: Restoring Competitiveness in Congressional Elections, was selected for its originality and promise of the research, its potential impact on the field, and his platform to communicate the findings to a broad audience.
In 2025, David will divide his time between editorial duties at The Cook Political Report and his independent research as a Carnegie Fellow.
“This is a huge professional honor,” says Wasserman, “which I’d like to share with my colleagues at The Cook Political Report — especially Amy Walter and Charlie Cook, who have given me the platform and latitude to explore new approaches to election analysis and political polarization. I'd also like to thank Heather Wilson, president of the University of Texas at El Paso, for nominating me. Through this research, I hope to contribute in some small way to tackling a major societal problem: the disincentivization of political cohesion."
Editor-in-Chief Amy Walter congratulates Wasserman for this prestigious honor. “David has played an integral role in the growth and development of The Cook Political Report. He has offered world-class analysis of congressional races in his seventeen years of covering the US House of Representatives, and his expertise in understanding redistricting and the impact on US elections is unmatched.
“The acknowledgement of the scholarship of The Cook Political Report, celebrated alongside the prestigious universities associated with this group of fellows, is a particular point of pride for David and our entire team — especially in this, our fortieth year of providing trusted non-partisan analysis of U.S. Elections.”
About The Cook Political Report
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter provides independent, non-partisan analysis of elections and campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, Governors and President as well as American political trends. Founded by Charlie Cook in 1984, the CPR is the preeminent prognosticator and original producer of the 7-point federal and state election rating scale, and is routinely sourced by national and local media, political professionals, educators and researchers. A recent review of CPR Race Ratings, surveying 1984 through 2022, revealed an impressive record of accuracy: Lean ratings were correct 95% of the time; Likely ratings, 97%; and Solid ratings, 99.9%.
About the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program
Founded in 2015, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program provides the most generous stipend of its kind for research in the humanities and social sciences. To date, the Corporation has named more than 270 fellows, representing a philanthropic investment of more than $54 million. The award is for a period of up to two years and the anticipated result is generally a book or major study. Congressional testimony by past fellows has addressed topics such as social media and privacy protections, transnational crime, governmental responses to pandemics, and college affordability. Fellows have received honors including a Nobel Prize and a National Book Award.
Subscribe Today
Our subscribers have first access to individual race pages for each House, Senate and Governors race, which will include race ratings (each race is rated on a seven-point scale) and a narrative analysis pertaining to that race.