Rachel Bitecofer

Rachel Bitecofer
Bitecofer in 2020
Born	(1977-02-23) February 23, 1977 (age 47)
Education	University of Oregon (BA) University of Georgia (MA, PhD)

Rachel Bitecofer (born February 23, 1977) ^{[1] [2]} is an American political scientist.

Early life and career

Bitecofer has a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. in political science and international affairs from the University of Georgia. In 2015 she became a lecturer at Christopher Newport University and assistant director of the Wason Center for Public Policy, where she conducted polling. In 2019 she applied to convert her position at the university to tenure track, but was denied. She then resigned her position and went to work for the Niskanen Center, a centrist think tank in Washington, D.C. ^[3]

Election punditry

Bitecofer's analysis has appeared on multiple media platforms including MSNBC and the New York Times. She wrote the 2017 book, The Unprecedented 2016 Presidential Election, on the election of Donald Trump and runs a podcast hosted by Substrack titled The Election Whisperer. She runs Strike Pac, a liberal super PAC. ^[4]

Bitecofer accurately predicted the size of the "Blue Wave" in the 2018 United States midterm elections earlier than other forecasters, ^[2] projecting that Democrats would gain 42 U.S. House seats in the election; ^[2] they gained 41 seats. ^[5] She also advanced the theory that Trump would lose reelection in 2020. ^{[6] [7] [8] [5]} Bitecofer argued that the 2020 electorate would see the return of voters who were unmotivated to vote in 2016. ^[7]

Bitecofer has argued that differential turnout has an increasing role in elections. ^[2] This view has been criticized by other political analysts like David Wasserman of The Cook Political Report , with others such as Kyle Kondik of The Crystal Ball and Sam Wang offering more support.

She has also argued against Democrats nominating moderate "Blue Dog" candidates, pointing to liberal candidates Stacey Abrams and Beto O'Rourke losing their elections in 2018 by fairly narrow margins. ^[2]

References

1. Bitecofer, Rachel [@RachelBitecofer] (February 23, 2019). "My mommy made me a birthday cake" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
2. Freedlander, David (February 6, 2020). "An Unsettling New Theory: There Is No Swing Voter". Politico. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
3. Jones, Matt (March 24, 2020). "Election forecaster Rachel Bitecofer to leave CNU after denied shot at tenure". Daily Press. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
4. "New superPAC launches to battle Republican messaging". MSNBC.com. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
5. Capehart, Jonathan (March 12, 2020). "'Black Americans are saving America from itself' in the Democratic primaries". Washington Post. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
6. Bitecofer, Rachel (January 25, 2019). "Opinion | Why Trump Will Lose in 2020". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 8, 2021.
7. Rodrigo, Chris Mills (July 1, 2019). "Trump predicted to lose reelection in model that forecasted Democratic takeover of House". The Hill. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
8. Ress, Dave (July 2, 2019). "Regressing, to look forward: CNU's Bitecofer forecasts a Trump defeat in 2020". Daily Press. Retrieved June 12, 2020.

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN