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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We do need a holiday just now. And not just a moment of leisure but an occasion for unity, healing and hope. -
Issues of vanity aside, the mask has become an emblem of submission to experts, to officialdom — to Washington. By the same token, the refusal to wear a mask becomes another badge of defiance. -
Statues and flags may not do physical harm to anyone or suppress anyone's vote. But they meant something to the people who put them up, and they have meaning for people who see them today. -
In the convention host cities of Milwaukee and Charlotte, people are wondering: As much as they wanted to host these events, is the price too high in terms of residents' exposure? -
Masks were in evidence when senators returned to work, and the Supreme Court heard oral arguments remotely. But facewear appears out of fashion at the White House, at least for public events. -
As COVID-19 takes over the political conversation, Americans' ambivalence about science — and "experts" in general — is likely to come to the forefront. -
On reopening the economy, defunding the WHO and adjourning Congress, the president's style — aggressive strides forward in rhetoric, then a more realistic step back — was on display. -
The virus is disproportionately affecting people of color, primarily in densely populated cities. This is where the urban-rural rift also comes into play — and, consequently, a political one. -
Few episodes in American government have left as permanent an imprint on the national memory. And perhaps none has left so much of a visible legacy on the American landscape. -
In years to come, how will fiscal conservatives who voted for $2 trillion attack the cost of budget items that will now look like rounding error or "decimal dust"?"
