Wright Quoted in USA Today on Fallout from Trump's Attacks on Election

Dec. 15, 2020

Lauren Wright is interviewed for an article in USA Today on the fallout, both for his legacy and for his party, of Trump's continued attacks on the November election: Facing Electoral College vote, Trump continues election attack, but without risks to him, experts say

For Trump, there may be little fallout save for his legacy as president, which will undoubtedly be stained by his conduct...[but] the immediate and future consequences for the Republican Party are material and substantial. In the short term, baseless claims about election fraud could very well suppress enough votes to cost the GOP two sorely needed Senate seats in a close race.... Conspiracy theories pose risks to public safety, weaken democratic institutions and make Americans vulnerable to threats from foreign adversaries. Trump’s assault on the elections process may not hurt him personally, but there are consequences for the country as a whole – the scale of which we may not yet perceive.

Lauren A. Wright is Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer in Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University at Princeton University,  where she teaches courses on The Presidency and Executive Power, Women and Politics, and Political Communication, and she is a CSDP faculty associate. Star Power: American Democracy in the Age of the Celebrity Candidate (Routledge 2019) identifies and measures the attributes of celebrities that make them well-equipped to win campaigns and yet poorly prepared to govern effectively. Wright is a frequent guest political analyst and has appeared on CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, and MSNBC.