Ben Bishin: 2020 Election and A Divided Congress

In this episode, UCR Professor of political science Ben Bishin talks with students from the UC Riverside School of Public Policy about what to expect from a partisan Congress as we enter President Biden's first term in office.About Ben Bishin:Benjamin G. Bishin is Professor of political science. His interests include questions of democracy, representation, identity and ethnicity, public opinion, legislative politics, Cuban-American and LGBT politics. He is author of Tyranny of the Minority: The Subconstituency Politics Theory of Representation and recipient of the 2001 Jewell-Loewenberg Award for the best paper on Legislative Politics and, along with his coauthors, winner of the 2011 and 2014 Bailey Awards for the best paper on gay and lesbian politics.Learn more about Ben Bishin via https://profiles.ucr.edu/app/home/profile/bishinPodcast Highlights:“What becomes tricky with respect to an evenly split Senate is that there is actually, technically, not a majority within the Senate for purposes of operating. So they have to come to an agreement...”-       Ben Bishin on the topic of how the Senate will function these next two years given that there are 50 sitting Republicans and 50 sitting Democrats.“There are 28 states that have seen legislatures introduce bills that are attempting to restrict the ability of people to vote... all in response to the narrow victory that Democrats had in a number of swing states.”-       Ben Bishin on the topic of the importance of passing election reform bill, H.R.1, following the widespread attempt to disenfranchise voters.“The interesting thing about this upcoming election is that if there was ever an election where the incumbent party is likely to hold their seats, it's probably 2022.”-       Ben Bishin on the topic of the future of both houses of Congress in the 2022 midterm election cycle.Guest:Ben Bishin (UCR Professor of Political Science)Interviewers:Maddie Bunting (UCR Public Policy Major, Dean’s Chief Ambassador)Laura Shah (UCR Public Policy Major, Dean’s Ambassador)Music by:C Codainehttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/Xylo-Ziko/motif-remix/imageryhttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/Xylo-Ziko/PhaseCommercial Links:https://giving.ucr.eduhttps://spp.ucr.edu/mppThis is a production of the UCR School of Public Policy: https://spp.ucr.edu/Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the interviewers and guests alone and do not reflect the official positions of the UC Riverside School of Public Policy or the University of California, Riverside.Subscribe to this podcast so you don’t miss an episode. Learn more about the series and other episodes via https://spp.ucr.edu/podcast.