Experts in the News | Miller Center

Why Kamala Harris as America’s first female vice president ‘completely disrupts the status quo’

When it comes to women in politics, “the supply of candidates is the problem, not the lack of demand for them,” Jennifer Lawless, the Commonwealth professor of politics at the University of Virginia, told MarketWatch. “The biggest problem is that they haven’t run for office,” said Lawless, who launched her own unsuccessful Democratic primary bid in a 2006 Rhode Island congressional race. “When there are women on the ballot on both sides of the aisle, they perform as well as men; they also raise as much money. And we’re entering an environment right now where at least at the congressional level and down, they receive similar media coverage.”

Jennifer Lawless

‘Harris Has the Potential To Change the Face of U.S. Politics’

From the perch of the vice presidency, Harris has the potential to change the face of U.S. politics. Harris’ election is a clear signal that the American people are willing to elect women.

Jennifer Lawless

Dr. Barbara Perry reflects on President-elect Biden's victory speech

Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies, is interviewed on WGN NewsNation.

Barbara Perry

Is Biden's Victory Enough to Give Obama the Third Term He Thought He Could Have Had?

Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, warned that Biden could lose popularity among young voters by working too hard to preserve the Obama legacy. "If he ties himself too closely to Obama, the AOC [Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] wing of the party and Bernie [Sanders] wing of the party has moved beyond that," Perry said.

Barbara Perry

Biden plans immediate flurry of executive orders to reverse Trump policies

Chris Lu, the executive director of the Obama-Biden transition in 2008, said that within two hours of the election being called in 2008 he had a formal letter beginning the transition process. “We literally at 9 a.m. the next morning walked into a transition office and had access to it,” he said. “It was the model for the smoothest transition of power.”

Chris Lu

'This isn't over!': Trump supporters refuse to accept defeat

The utter rejection of Biden as the legitimate president by Trump and his supporters appears to represent something new in American political history, said Barbara Perry, presidential studies director at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. “We typically haven’t had a leader who loses the presidency who then tells his followers, 'This is false. This has been stolen from us,'” Perry said. "Incumbent presidents have been mad, so mad they didn’t go to the inauguration, but not like this, where they are leading those people to say this is fraudulent.”

Barbara Perry