Alexander Theodoridis

Associate Professor of Political Science / Co-director of UMass Poll University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Amherst MA

Alex Theodoridis looks at the ways in which citizens interact with the political world in an era of hyper-polarization.

Contact

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Expertise

Public Opinion and American Politics
Political Behavior
Polling
Public Opinion and Public Policy

Biography

Alex Theodoridis looks at the ways in which citizens interact with the political world in an era of hyper-polarization.

Much of his work applies new survey experimental and measurement paradigms to examine the implications of partisan identity and party cues for political cognition. He also studies public opinion as it relates to a variety of policy domains, especially environmental policy.

His work and writing is regularly featured by media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Scientific American, Time, CNN and The Economist .

Social Media

Video

Education

University of California, Berkeley

Ph.D.

Political Science

Harvard Kennedy School

M.P.P.

University of Virginia

B.A.

Politics and English

Select Recent Media Coverage

Let’s Not Lose Sight of Who Trump Is

The New York Times  online

2024-11-08

Alexander Theodoridis, co-director of the UMass Poll, is one of several political scientists quoted in a column analyzing the significance of last week’s presidential election. “Americans, in poll after poll, told us how this result should be interpreted — as a reaction to inflation and personal economic unease among many voters,” Theodoridis says.

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Trump says 82% says Americans think 2020 election was “rigged.” Polls, polling executives disagree

PolitiFact  online

2024-03-07

Alex Theodoridis, co-director of the UMass Amherst Poll, comments on a claim by former President Donald Trump that 82% of Americans think the 2020 election was “rigged.” Available data shows that Trump’s claim is “absurd,” he says.

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To what extent can Taylor Swift influence the 2024 presidential elections?

El Pais  online

2024-02-04

Alex Theodoridis comments on music icon Taylor Swift’s potential influence on the 2024 presidential election. “If you support a candidate, is that going to change your fans’ way of thinking? No. It’s highly unlikely,” Theodoridis says. “What she will do is make her enthusiasm [for a candidate] known and spread it among her fans. Let them make donations, let them be volunteers. And to her fan base — which is disproportionately female and young — she’ll say: ‘hey, you guys have to be excited.’ And that enthusiasm is going to make a difference.”

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Select Publications

American Democracy Has Been Caught in the Partisan Crossfire

Charles F. Kettering Foundation

Alexander Theodoridis

2025-01-16

Alexander Theodoridis cites recent UMass Poll results while examining the fragile state of American democracy and growing concerns about the possible political violence in the country. “America’s crisis is borne of a dangerous interaction between mass-level partisan hyperpolarization, the cynical exploitation of it by some elites for personal or political advantage, and craven silence from many co-partisan leaders,” he writes.

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Rooted in Racism? Race, Partisanship, Status Threat, and Public Opinion Toward Statehood for Washington, DC

Political Research Quarterly

2023

In recent years, a number of prominent elected officials on both sides of the partisan divide have weighed in on the possibility of making Washington, D.C., the nation’s fifty-first state. While Democratic supporters of statehood for D.C. emphasize issues of equal representation, some Republican opponents have stressed the partisan and ideological consequences of D.C. statehood. Other Republican opponents, in justifying their position, have made the claim that Washington, D.C., lacks the necessary and sufficient characteristics associated with statehood, and these claims have been widely interpreted as implicitly racist appeals.

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Americans just elected two lesbian governors. Have attitudes changed that much?

The Washington Post

Tatishe Nteta, Adam Eichen, Maddi Hertz, Ray La Raja, Jesse Rhodes and Alexander Theodoridis

2022-11-15

"Our research found sexism hurts candidates more than antigay attitudes, at least in Massachusetts"

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