Mike Pence

Vice President Mike Pence listens as Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks during the vice presidential debate Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, at Kingsbury Hall on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Pool via AP

Pence and Harris’s low-key debate probably won’t change many voters' minds. Here's why.

The debate probably didn’t move the needle in terms of attracting undecideds, Northeastern professors observe. But with a Supreme Court nomination hearing on the way, their discussion set the stage for a looming political conflict

by Peter Ramjug October 8, 2020

Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Will the vice presidential debate tell us more than Trump and Biden did?

What if we could look back on political debates and extract the information we needed to make informed decisions on issues and candidates? A visualization tool created by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Northeastern may help us do just that.

by Khalida Sarwari October 6, 2020

President Donald Trump turns to House speaker Nancy Pelosi as he delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence watches on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

A body language expert analyzes the ‘Pelosi Clap’ and other highlights from the State of the Union

It was President Donald Trump who delivered the State of the Union address Tuesday, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the one “who stole the show in terms of people paying attention to body language,” said Laura Dudley, a behavioral analyst at Northeastern University.

by Molly Callahan February 6, 2019

On Tuesday, a vote to begin debate on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act squeaked by the Senate in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote. Photo via Flickr.

Senate healthcare vote a small but important victory for GOP

On Tuesday, the Senate voted narrowly to begin debate on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote. But Republican leaders suffered a setback just hours later when their plan to replace the health law was defeated. The events are another illustration of the “deep divide” in Congress, said political science professors Thomas Vicino and John Portz.

by Molly Callahan July 26, 2017

3Qs: The strategy of selecting a vice presidential candidate

After weeks of intense public speculation, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton introduced their vice presidential candidates. That got us wondering how presidential hopefuls select their running mates and whether those selections typically impact elections. Here, Bill Crotty, professor emeritus and an expert on presidential politics, examines those questions.

by Matthew McDonald July 27, 2016

Making sense of today’s political conventions

With the Republican National Convention set to begin on Monday in Cleveland, Ohio, we spoke with Northeastern professor William Crotty about what actually happens at political conventions and the evolving role these conventions have played in presidential elections.

by Matthew McDonald July 18, 2016