Election R&D Dialogues: The Debate That Never Was
USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future Co-Directors Michael Murphy and Robert Shrum are joined by journalists Ronald Brownstein and Asma Khalid and strategistDoug Thornell to provide an in-depth conversation on topics from debate analysis to election trends, demographics, current events, Biden’s town hall in Philadelphia and Trump’s competing event in Miami. Brownstein is a Senior Political Analyst at CNN and serves as Atlantic Media’s Editorial Director for Strategic Partnerships in charge of long-term editorial strategy. Khalid is a political correspondent for NPR who co-hosts The NPR Politics Podcast. Thornell is Partner and Head of SKDKPolitical, having served as a media strategist to the Democratic National Committee, Congressional Black Caucus, and various House, Senate, and gubernatorial campaigns.
The mission of USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future is to advance civil dialogue that transcends partisan divisions and explores solutions to our most pressing national and global challenges. The Center is led by two of the nation’s most experienced and respected political experts, Robert Shrum and Michael Murphy.
Robert Shrum is the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at USC Dornsife and has been director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. He has a storied career as an author and campaign adviser to Democratic candidates. His numerous clients included Edward Kennedy, Joe Biden, John Glenn and Barbara Mikulski in their Senate campaigns, and John Kerry and Al Gore in their presidential races. Overseas his clients included Ehud Barak in his campaign for Prime Minister of Israel, the British Labour Party and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of Ireland and the President of Colombia.
Michael Murphy is one of the Republican Party’s most successful political consultants. Murphy has led more than 20 statewide campaigns to victory, including gubernatorial races for Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christine Todd Whitman, John Engler and Tommy Thompson as well as dozens of Senatorial, United States House and other races. He’s worked on six Republican presidential campaigns and is widely known for his work in the 2000 GOP primaries as a senior strategist for Senator John McCain. He has advised leaders in Canada, Panama, El Salvador, Europe and in the former Soviet Union. He is a widely known political pundit, appearing frequently on NBC, CNN and NPR.
