Experts

Jennifer Lawless

Faculty Senior Fellow
UVA+CV+-+Jennifer+Lawless.pdf

Fast Facts

  • Chair, UVA Department of Politics
  • Author or co-author of nine books
  • Former editor of the American Journal of Political Science
  • Expertise on women and politics, campaigns and elections, political media

Areas Of Expertise

  • Domestic Affairs
  • Media and the Press
  • Governance
  • Elections
  • Politics

Jennifer L. Lawless is the Leone Reaves and George W. Spicer Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia and the chair of the Politics Department. She is also has affiliations with UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the Miller Center.

Her research focuses on political ambition, campaigns and elections, and media and politics. She is the author or co-author of nine books, including News Hole: The Demise of Local Journalism and Political Engagement (with Danny Hayes) and It Takes More than a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office (with Richard L. Fox). 

Lawless' research, which has been supported by the National Science Foundation, has appeared in numerous academic journals and is regularly cited in the popular press. From 2019-2025, Lawless served as the co-editor in chief of the American Journal of Political Science. She is also the recipient of the 2023 Shorenstein Center Goldsmith Book Prize, for the academic book that examines the intersection among media, politics, and public policy. 

Lawless graduated from Union College with a BA in political science and Stanford University with an MA and PhD in political science. In 2006, she sought the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in Rhode Island’s second congressional district. Although she lost the race, she remains an obsessive political junkie.

Featured Publications

It Takes More Than a Candidate
It Takes More Than a Candidate

Jennifer Lawless (coauthor)

News Hole
News Hole: The Demise of Local Journalism and Political Engagement

Jennifer Lawless (coauthor)

Women Men
Women, Men & US Politics: 10 Big Questions

Jennifer Lawless (coauthor)

Women on the Run
Women on the Run

Jennifer Lawless (coauthor)

Running From Office
Running From Office

Jennifer Lawless (coauthor)

Becoming a Candidate
Becoming a Candidate

Jennifer Lawless

It Still Takes a Candidate
It Still Takes a Candidate

Jennifer Lawless (coauthor)

It Takes a Candidate
It Takes a Candidate

Jennifer Lawless (coauthor)

Jennifer Lawless News Feed

WREN
Wake-Up Call: A Look Ahead to the 2020 Election
Sunday Morning Wake-up Call host Rick Moore talks with Jennifer Lawless, University Virginia Professor of Politics Faculty at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, about the upcoming US 2020 presidential election. Topics include: candidate Joe Biden’s VP search, the effectiveness of today’s political polling and thoughts on what election day might look like.
Jennifer Lawless WREN
HuffPost
AOC Gave The Most Important Feminist Speech In A Generation
“I think it is the most important feminist speech in a generation,” said Jennifer Lawless, a politics professor at the University of Virginia. She compared it to then-first lady Hillary Clinton’s groundbreaking “women’s rights are human rights” speech before the United Nations in 1995.
Jennifer Lawless HuffPost
AP
Trump lags Biden on people of color in top campaign ranks
Jennifer Lawless, commonwealth professor of politics at the University of Virginia, said “there are still a lot of milestones that haven’t been hit” by political campaigns, such as a Black man or woman directing — and winning — a presidential campaign. And she said having diverse staff at lower levels in campaigns can help increase the pool of future managers, finance chairs and others.
Jennifer Lawless Associated Press
NBC News
Biden, Trump campaigns release staff diversity data
Jennifer Lawless, a politics professor at the University of Virginia, noted the difference between the Trump and Biden campaign’s ethnic diversity in their senior staff. “It might not seem like a huge deal, but the disparity between a quarter and more than a third of people of color, especially in this environment, matters a lot,” she said.
Jennifer Lawless NBC News
Washington Monthly
Why Can’t Republicans Elect Women?
But a spate of congressional wins would almost surely mean that Trump, at the top of the ticket, had won as well. A man who has driven women voters away from the party in striking numbers would continue to define its goals and values. “Frankly, at this point, the Republicans are still able to win elections, even though they’re fielding such a paltry share of female candidates,” Jennifer Lawless, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, told me. “Unless there are electoral consequences, it doesn’t really seem likely that there’s going to be a fundamental shift.”
Jennifer Lawless Washington Monthly
The Lily
The protests could change who Biden picks as VP. Will he choose a black woman?
Biden might not need to worry so much about winning white, working-class voters in the Midwest: As a white man from a working class background, he already connects with that demographic, said Jennifer Lawless, a professor of women and politics at the University of Virginia. Those voters also may not be as taken with Trump as they were in 2016, she said. Many voted for him for economic reasons — and now, because of coronavirus, a large group of them are unemployed.

Jennifer Lawless The Lily