Ron Elving
Ron Elving is Senior Editor and Correspondent on the Washington Desk for NPR News, where he is frequently heard as a news analyst and writes regularly for NPR.org.
He is also a professorial lecturer and Executive in Residence in the School of Public Affairs at American University, where he has also taught in the School of Communication. In 2016, he was honored with the University Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in an Adjunct Appointment. He has also taught at George Mason and Georgetown.
He was previously the political editor for USA Today and for Congressional Quarterly. He has been published by the Brookings Institution and the American Political Science Association. He has contributed chapters on Obama and the media and on the media role in Congress to the academic studies Obama in Office 2011, and Rivals for Power, 2013. Ron's earlier book, Conflict and Compromise: How Congress Makes the Law, was published by Simon & Schuster and is also a Touchstone paperback.
During his tenure as manager of NPR's Washington desk from 1999 to 2014, the desk's reporters were awarded every major recognition available in radio journalism, including the Dirksen Award for Congressional Reporting and the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 2008, the American Political Science Association awarded NPR the Carey McWilliams Award "in recognition of a major contribution to the understanding of political science."
Ron came to Washington in 1984 as a Congressional Fellow with the American Political Science Association and worked for two years as a staff member in the House and Senate. Previously, he had been state capital bureau chief for The Milwaukee Journal.
He received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University and master's degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of California – Berkeley.
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When Russia was still the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, summits with its leaders were largely about fears of a thermonuclear duel and mass annihilation. Here's a look back at the highlights. -
Some Americans actually remember the gas lines of the 1970s and how they contributed to the downfall of two presidents. And if you don't, you've at least heard the stories and seen the pictures. -
The president laid out an ambitious agenda in his address to Congress, but in a chamber largely empty due to COVID-19 restrictions, he was reminded of the thin majorities with which he has to work. -
The sheer scale of the Biden agenda finds an analog in the early achievements of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. But which of those offers the better insight into what's happening now? -
The Saudi crown prince may escape punishment for his order to kill a columnist. A pandemic relief package is moving through Congress. Donald Trump remains popular with conservative activists.
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Where will the GOP turn in its hour of crisis? If the past is any guide, it will turn to the wellsprings of strength that have brought the party back from the brink before. -
The attack on the Capitol continues to cast a shadow over Congress as both a building and an institution, as it remains either the subject or subtext of most every political discussion in Washington. -
There is little precedent for a former president running again, let alone winning. But since when has the lack of precedent bothered Donald Trump? -
Trump joins a subset of former presidents who were denied a second term by the voters. For any public figure, that sort of hired-and-fired rejection might be purgatory. For Trump, it might be worse. -
The president spent weeks attacking the election results, but not until the insurrection at the Capitol — a symbol of liberty and self-determination — did calls for an early transfer of power begin.
