S1E15 - Ron Elving - A Most Unusual Midterms
We met with Ron Elving, Senior Politics Editor and Correspondent for the Washington Desk at NPR News, on November 11, 2022 to reflect upon the 2022 midterm elections and the state of our democracy. Some of our conversation reflected the specifics of this last week with midterm results still trickling in, but most of what we discussed turned to broader questions of our times: the resilience of democracy, free speech, civic engagement, polling, Russian intervention, disinformation in general, politics discourse, ranked-choice voting, Trump’s influence, and the engagement of rising generations of Americans in the political process overall. America faces many challenges. To help us make sense of them, Ron Elving lent us his measured and sober perspectives. He also graced us with his optimistic disposition, and the sense that clearly understanding our challenges enables us to grow stronger.
Ron Elving is Senior Editor and Correspondent on the Washington Desk for NPR News, where he is frequently heard as a news analyst and writes regularly for NPR.org.
He is also a professorial lecturer and Executive in Residence in the School of Public Affairs at American University, where he has also taught in the School of Communication. In 2016, he was honored with the University Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in an Adjunct Appointment. He has also taught at George Mason and Georgetown.
He was previously the political editor for USA Today and for Congressional Quarterly. He has been published by the Brookings Institution and the American Political Science Association. He has contributed chapters on Obama and the media and on the media role in Congress to the academic studies Obama in Office 2011, and Rivals for Power, 2013. Ron's earlier book, Conflict and Compromise: How Congress Makes the Law, was published by Simon & Schuster and is also a Touchstone paperback.
During his tenure as manager of NPR's Washington desk from 1999 to 2014, the desk's reporters were awarded every major recognition available in radio journalism, including the Dirksen Award for Congressional Reporting and the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 2008, the American Political Science Association awarded NPR the Carey McWilliams Award "in recognition of a major contribution to the understanding of political science."
Ron came to Washington in 1984 as a Congressional Fellow with the American Political Science Association and worked for two years as a staff member in the House and Senate. Previously, he had been state capital bureau chief for The Milwaukee Journal.
He received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University and master's degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of California – Berkeley.
Photo: Allison Shelley/NPR
Conversation recorded on November 11, 2022.