LAX Leader

Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz and Ohio GOP Senator J.D. Vance are set to engage in their first scheduled debate on Tuesday, October 1. The University of Southern California (USC) has announced that several of its experts will be available for comment and analysis before and after the debate.

Mindy Romero, a political sociologist specializing in political behavior and voting patterns, particularly among youth and communities of color, is one of the experts available. She is the founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the USC Price School of Public Policy. For comments, she can be reached at msromero@usc.edu.

Bob Shrum, director of the Center for the Political Future at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, will also provide insights. Shrum has a background as a speechwriter for Senators George McGovern and Edward Kennedy and has been involved in numerous successful campaigns, including those for Joe Biden, John Kerry, and Al Gore. He can be contacted at shrum@usc.edu.

Christian Grose, an expert on American government, political representation, polling, and elections is another resource. Grose serves as a professor of political science and public policy at USC Dornsife and academic director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy at USC Price. He can be reached at cgrose@usc.edu.

Morris Levy specializes in race, ethnicity, politics; demographics; immigration policy; attitudes toward immigration in both the U.S. and Europe; voter ID laws; and behavior. Levy is an assistant professor of political science at USC Dornsife and is available for interviews in Spanish. Contact him at morrisl@usc.edu.

Kamy Akhavan focuses on political polarization origins and solutions; improving interpersonal communication; debate power; nonprofit leadership; digital marketing; civics education; teaching controversial issues. Akhavan is executive director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future. For comments: kakhavan@usc.edu.

Jeff Blattner is a Fall 2024 fellow at the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future with expertise on the U.S. Supreme Court’s role in American politics. Blattner previously served as Judiciary Committee Chief Counsel for Senator Edward Kennedy and Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S Department of Justice. He can be contacted via raffio@usc.edu or uscnews@usc.edu.

Martin Kaplan's research interests include campaign coverage on TV news; narrative change's impact on social/cultural change; democracy's attention economy impact are notable areas he covers as an expert in politics/journalism/entertainment since holding USC’s Norman Lear endowed chair since 2000 while directing USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center studying entertainment/media impacts over two decades additionally being research professor at Annenberg School Communication/Journalism reachable via martyk@usc.edu

Steve Caplan offers expertise in digital media/political advertising/political communications strategy currently adjunct instructor Annenberg/founder Message strategic communications firm LA prior partner GMMB leading cause marketing firms agency record Obama 2008 campaign reachable scaplan@usc.edu

For further information or to arrange interviews with these experts contact Nina Raffio (raffio@usc.edu or (213) 442-8464) or USC Media Relations (uscnews@usc.edu or (213) 740-2215).