Democracy Fund Voter Study Group Welcomes Four New Members

For Immediate Release

October 3, 2018

Lauren Strayer
media@voterstudygroup.org
(202) 420-7928

Jack D’Amato
media@voterstudygroup.org
(404) 995-4500

Democracy Fund Voter Study Group Welcomes Four New Members

Antoine Banks, Cathy J. Cohen, Bernard L. Fraga, and Vanessa Williamson bring new perspectives to Democracy Fund Voter Study Group’s diverse roster of distinguished analysts and scholars.

Washington, D.C. — October 3, 2018

The Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, a research collaboration of leading analysts and scholars from across the political spectrum, announced today the addition of four new members:

Antoine Banks is an associate professor in the Department of Government and Politics and the director of the Government and Politics Research Lab at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on racial and ethnic politics, emotions, political psychology and public opinion. He is the author of “Anger and Racial Politics: The Emotional Foundation of Racial Attitudes in America,” which explores the link between emotions and racial attitudes and the consequences it has for political preferences.

Cathy J. Cohen is the David and Mary Winton Green professor of Political Science and chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Her general field of specialization is American politics; however, her research interests include social movements, as well as African-American politics, women and politics and lesbian and gay politics. Her books include “Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics” and “The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics.”

Bernard Fraga, assistant professor of Political Science at Indiana University, studies American elections, examining voter turnout, racial and ethnic politics and the impact of election laws on voters. His 2018 book, “The Turnout Gap: Race, Ethnicity, and Political Inequality in a Diversifying America,” provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of race and voter turnout, examining America's four largest racial and ethnic groups and voting patterns from the 1800s to the present.

Vanessa Williamson is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution who studies the politics of redistribution, with a focus on attitudes around taxation. She is the author of “Read My Lips: Why Americans Are Proud to Pay Taxes” and co-author of “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism,” which the New Yorker named one of the 10 best political books of 2012.

“Our mission is to support democracy by helping policymakers and opinion leaders better understand American voters’ views,” said Democracy Fund President Joe Goldman, co-founder of the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group. “These four new members expand the expertise and diversity of our group of scholars from across the political spectrum, and we look forward to benefiting from their research and insights.”