Associate Professor of Political Science Rosalyn Cooperman was recently interviewed for a story on WAMU on how even extremely well-funded campaigns lost in the Virginia General Assembly elections last week.

According to the story, “Virginia is one of only a few states to hold elections in off-off years, and both parties saw this year’s vote as a bellwether for the 2020 presidential race.  Virginia had already drawn national attention after Democrats shrank the majority in the House of Delegates in 2017 by flipping 15 seats, political scientist Rosalyn Cooperman at the University of Mary Washington noted.”

“‘You’ve immediately raised the stakes for the next election because Democrats came within a whisker of taking both the House of Delegates and the state Senate,’ Cooperman said. ‘You’re coming into an election cycle that’s going to raise the profile of these races.'” Read more. 

Rosalyn Cooperman, associate professor of political science, was quoted in an article in The Virginian-Pilot about an incumbent Republican delegate in Virginia Beach who, according to the article, says his “Democratic opponent’s attack mailers have actually benefited his campaign — so much so that he’s reporting them as a $44,000 in-kind contribution in official records submitted to the state.”

“In reality, the stunt is a creative way to frame what’s shaping up to be a close race as Democrats try to flip enough seats to seize control of the General Assembly,” Cooperman said. “It’s political theater, to be sure.” Read more. 

Associate Professor of Political Science Rosalyn Cooperman was interviewed for an article in Governing examining the decline of Republican women in state legislatures after the 2018 midterms. Cooperman said that both Republicans and Democrats have historically struggled on gender representation, but while liberal groups have made an effort to support female Democratic candidates, there are few organizations that are committed to recruiting and supporting GOP women running for office. The article also mentions Cooperman’s research on party donor contributions that she did with Melody Crowder-Meyer, a professor at Davidson College. According to the article, “their research found that 72 percent of Republican donors ‘never heard of’ five conservative women PACs, but only 7 percent of Democrats said the same about liberal women PACs. And while 2 percent of Republican donors said they actively support the group of conservative women PACs, 36 percent of Democratic donors support liberal women PACs.” Read more.