Media
Stateline: "Working-class people rarely have a seat 'at the legislative table' in state capitols" by Robbie Sequeira, March 15, 2024.
Breitbart: "Disney Debuts Deaf Native Superhero as 'Woke' Debate Swirls" by AFP, January 8, 2024.
Pluribus News: "Lawmaker pay battles in citizen legislatures coming back in 2024" by Sophie Quinton, October 18, 2023.
Mother Jones: "Marvel Gives the Best Takes to Bad Guys. Why?" by Chance Townsend, August 23, 2023
Deseret News: "When did the Democratic Party become the party of the upper class?" by Jennifer Graham, June 4, 2023
Boston Globe: "Six years after pay raise law, many top Mass. officials rank as highest paid in the country" by Matt Stout, February 28, 2023
Newsweek: "Voters Don't Care If Politicians Have a Degree. So Why Do They All Have One (or More)?" by Thomas Gift and Julie Norman, January 9, 2023
Washington Post: "Is 'Wakanda Forever' too 'Woke' for Marvel's Own Good?" by Bethany Lacina, Nicholas Carnes, and Lilly J. Goren, November 11, 2022
New York Observer: Unequal Representation (suite of essays) by Oliver Staley and Courtney Vinopal, November 2, 2022
Washington Post: "Trump Didn't Bring White Working-class Voters to the Republican Party. The Data Suggests He Kept Them Away" by Nicholas Carnes and Noam Lupu, April 14, 2021
The Wall Street Journal: "Alex Lasry, a Wealthy Democrat, Is Targeted by Both Parties in Wisconsin Senate Race" by John McCormick, Feb 28, 2021
Vox: "The significance of electing working-class politicians" by Terry Nguyen, Jan 28, 2021
New York Times: "95 Percent of Representatives Have a Degree. Look Where That's Got Us" by Jennifer Senior, Dec 21, 2020
538 Politics (Podcast): "Does Trump Really Have Unique Appeal Among Working-Class Whites?" by Galen Druke, Nate Silver, Micah Cohen and Clare Malone, May 27, 2020
KCUR: "Kansas Legislators Make Laws, But They Don't Make Much Money" by Nomin Ujiyediin, October 12, 2019
Washington Post: "Reducing Trump supporters to 'flyover country' misrepresents them" by Eugene Scott, October 4, 2019
Ottawa Citizen: "How we can help women in politics overcome the 'cash ceiling'" by Tanya Nayler, July 16, 2019
Indypendent: "Lessons on Grassroots Campaigning from 'Councilwoman'" by Peter Rugh, May 9, 2019
US Representative Katie Porter: "Rep. Katie Porter Introduces Bill to Make It Easier for Working Parents to Run for Office," March 8, 2019
The Washington Post: ""Here's How to Help People Who Have Kids and aren't Rich Run for Congress" by Nicholas Carnes, March 7, 2019
LSE US Centre: "Why we should be paying more attention to lawmakers' occupational backgrounds" by Eric R. Hansen, February 21, 2019
Vox: "Howard Schultz's campaign is based on 3 ideas, and they're all wrong" by Ezra Klein, February 13, 2019
New York Times: "How Every Member Got to Congress" by Sahil Chinoy and Jessia Ma, January 26, 2019
Washington Post / Monkey Cage: "What would actually put more working-class people in office?" by John Sides, January 22, 2019
Las Vegas Sun: "Lawmaker pay raises historically unpopular in Nevada" by Yvonne Gonzalez, December 30, 2018
NBC News: "Councilwoman and hotel housekeeper: Latina lawmaker redefines public service" by Raul A. Reyes, December 27, 2018
Pekin Daily Times: "Why is the U.S. 'government by the rich and for the rich'?" by Bill Knight, December 4, 2018
Vox: "Working-class people are underrepresented in politics. The problem isn't voters." by Nicholas Carnes, October 24, 2018
The Guardian: "Why are so few US politicians from the working class?" by Nicholas Carnes, October 4, 2018
North Carolina Policy Watch: "Nicholas Carnes of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University" by Clayton Henkel, September 16, 2018
Chronicle of Higher Education: "Does It Matter if a Political Candidate Has Steep Student-Loan Debts? Georgians Will Get to Decide" by Dan Bauman, August 15, 2018
The Hill: "Democrats should fully embrace their union roots" by James Feigenbaum, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Vanessa Williamson, August 14, 2018
Vice: "The More People Vote, the More Progressives Win" by Sean McElwee and Colin McAuliffe, July 6, 2018
CBC News: "Low pay a barrier to getting young people to run for city council, say millennial politicians" by Andrew Kurjata, June 28, 2018
WNYC: "Why Do Politicians in America Have So Much Money?", May 18, 2018
New York Times: "Right-to-Work Laws Have Devastated Unions -- and Democrats" by James Feigenbaum, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Vanessa Williamson, March 8, 2018
Washington Post: "Why the poor don't vote to soak the rich" by Daniel Treisman, February 27, 2018
Washington Post / The Fix: "Roseanne Barr reinforces myth that working-class voters elected Trump" by Eugene Scott, January 11, 2018
Newsweek: "Roseanne Pushes the Myth That Working Class Whites Carried Trump to the Presidency in Her TV Reboot" by Carlos Ballesteros, January 9, 2018
Washington Post / Monkey Cage: "These were our 10 most popular posts of 2017" by E.J. Graff, December 29, 2017
LegBranch.com: "Congress's Socioeconomic Biases: Does It Matter for Tax Reform?" by Jordan Ragusa, December 7, 2017
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "What would Adam Smith think about this Trump tax reform?" by Nicholas Carnes, September 29, 2017
WRAL: "Duke University's Nicholas Carnes discusses the myth of working-class voters and their unwavering support of President Donald Trump" by Clayton Henkel, June 26, 2017
Raleigh News and Observer: "Duke professor dispels myth about Trump and working-class voters" by Ned Barnett, June 10, 2017
New York Times: "The Democratic Party Is in Worse Shape Than You Thought" by Thomas B. Edsall, June 9, 2017
Salon: "Can we finally kill off the zombie lie? Trump's voters mostly weren't the 'white working class'" by Chauncey DeVega, June 7, 2017
Wall Street Journal: "Why Trump Won" by James Freeman, June 6, 2017
Washington Post: "The importance of a cultural blue-collar identity in support for Donald Trump" by Philip Bump, June 5, 2017
Monkey Cage: "It's Time to Bust the Myth: Most Trump Voters Were Not Working Class" by Nicholas Carnes and Noam Lupu, June 5, 2017
Carolina Journal: "Pay raise could lessen regulation" by John Hood, May 24, 2017
Chronicle of Higher Education: "In Congress, Even Lawmakers' Degrees Are a Partisan Issue" by Ben Myers and Peter Olsen-Phillips, May 6, 2017
U Tennessee Daily Beacon: "Panelists tackle inequality, Trump at Baker Center lecture" by Chris Salvemini, April 23, 2017
Duke Chronicle: "State legislators want higher pay to handle financial stress of the job" by Rachel Sereix, February 20, 2017
Duke Chronicle: "State legislators want higher pay to handle financial stress of the job" by Rachel Sereix, February 20, 2017
News and Observer: "Would raising lawmakers' pay help change who runs for office?" by Will Doran, February 16, 2017
Bloomberg: "Illinois Gubernatorial Primary Might Pit a Millionaire Against a Billionaire" by John McCormick, February 15, 2017
Christian Science Monitor: "Senate confirms former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary" by Gretel Kauffman, February 14, 2017
Duke Chronicle: "Higher pay does not entice blue-collar workers to run for political office, study concludes" by Claire Xiao, January 16, 2017
WUNC: "Would Higher Pay For Politicians Put More Working Class People In Office?" by Liz Schlemmer, January 10, 2017
The State: "Higher legislative pay just gets you richer lawmakers, study says," by Bristow Marchant, January 7, 2017
Raleigh News 14: Interview with Nicholas Carnes, January 6, 2017
Pacific Standard: "Few Blue-Collar Americans Hold Office, and the Reason Is Not Low Pay," January 5, 2017
The Siasat Daily: "Higher Pay No Motivation for Working Class to Break into Politics," January 5, 2017
Washington Post: "What happens to the working class when millionaires and billionaires are in charge" by Ana Swanson, December 15, 2016
Washington Post / Monkey Cage: "Voters actually don't prefer wealthy politicians" by Nicholas Carnes and Noam Lupu, December 6, 2016
Toronto Globe and Mail: "Trump's cabinet could be wealthiest administration in U.S. history" by Barrie McKenna, December 1, 2016
Christian Science Monitor: "Trump's millionaire administration: A betrayal of campaign promises?" by Zhai Yun Tan, December 1, 2016
Washington Post: "Donald Trump is assembling the richest administration in modern American history" by Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson, November 30, 2016
What Did I Miss (podcast): "Rich Politicians and How You Can Run For Public Office," November 17, 2016
New York Magazine: "By the Way, There Is Little Evidence That Business Experience Makes You Better at Governing" by Matthew Hutson, November 8, 2016
Yes Magazine: "Where Citizens Can Run for Office Without Big Money--and Win" by James Trimarco, November 4, 2016
Demos: "Ideologia: Barriers to Latino Representation" by Juhem Navarro-Rivera, August 18, 2016
No Jargon (podcast): "Episode 41: White-Collar Government," July 12, 2016
Salon: "The real masters of the universe: The astounding influence lawyers have on U.S. government and policy" by Sean McElwee and Roberta Barnett, June 12, 2016
Vox: "A Hillary Clinton presidency will greatly boost women's representation in politics, with big policy consequences" by Matthew Yglesias, June 6, 2016
The Nation: "The Key to Making Economic Development More Equitable Is Making It More Democratic" by K. Sabeel Rahman, April 26, 2016
Ways and Means (Podcast): "Episode 5: The Extraordinary Search for Ordinary Politicians," April 21, 2016
MSNBC: "Why Trump's appeal is wider than you might think" by Nicholas Carnes and Noam Lupu, April 8, 2016
Huffington Post: "What's Really at Stake When Congressional Staff Deserve Better Pay" by Linda Forman Naval, March 25, 2016
Raleigh News and Observer: "Walmart veteran says Washington needs more former cashiers" by John Drescher, March 14, 2016
Vox: "What Ted Cruz's Goldman Sachs loan tells us about running for Congress" by Lee Drutman, January 14, 2016
Monkey Cage: "No matter what happens in Sunday's election, Argentina will be governed by the rich. Here's why that matters." by Noam Lupu, November 20, 2015
Boston University Today: "One Class, One Day: The Wire Teaches Politics and Policy" by Joel Brown, November 18, 2015
Bangor Daily News: "Yes on Question 1" by Dick Atlee, October 23, 2015
The Texas Tribune: "Lone Star College to host Economic Inequality, Civic Engagement Conference," October 22, 2015
Medium: "A National Food Policy for the 21st Century" by Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, Ricardo Salvador, and Olivier De Schutter, October 5, 2015
MSNBC: "Does Scott Walker's lack of college degree matter?," July 8, 2015
Politico: "Scott Walker didn't finish college. Would that make him a bad president?" by Nicholas Carnes and Noam Lupu, July 8, 2015
Fiscal Times: "The Flap Over Rubio's Finances Could Help or Hurt Him" by Eric Pianin, June 10, 2015
Washington Post: "How Growing Up Poor Changes Politicians" by Lydia DePillis, May 6, 2015
NPR Marketplace: "The Downside to Being a 'CEO Candidate'" by Stan Alcorn, May 4, 2015
Vox: "Raising Social Security's Retirement Age is a Disaster for the Poor" by Ezra Klein, April 22, 2015
Christian Science Monitor: "Why Millennials Don't Want to Run for Political Office" by Alexander LaCasse, April 11, 2015
Monkey Cage: "Millennials Don't Want to Run for Office" by Shauna Shames, February 24, 2015
FiveThirtyEight: "Chicago's Unemployment Rate Could Cost Rahm Emanuel Votes" by Dan Hopkins, February 23, 2015
Burlington Free Press: "Opinion: Thoughts of a First-time Candidate" by Mike Fife, February 23, 2015
The Diplomat: "The Future of South Korea's Welfare System" by Steven Denney, February 7, 2015
The New York Times: "Why Joni Ernst Talked About Her Tough Upbringing" by Lynn Vavreck, January 21, 2015
Al Jazeera America: "Why Washington's Gridlock Wont Go Away" by Sean McElwee, December 4, 2014
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Communities and Banking Newsletter: "Seeking More Working-Class Americans in Congress" by Nicholas Carnes, December 2, 2014
Salon.com: "The Death of Working-class Politics: How the Wealthy Conquered Congress and Abandoned Blue-collar America" by Sean McElwee, November 22, 2014
Bloomberg News: "Candidates Hit for Wealth in Campaigns Amid Frozen Wages" by Toluse Olorunnipa, November 3, 2014
Hartford Courant: "Malloy Hopes Class Warfare Pays Off" by Daniela Altimari, October 3, 2014
TakePart: "Where Are All the Blue-Collar Candidates?" by Hayley Fox, September 19, 2014
Boston Review: "Fighting Inequality in the New Gilded Age" by K. Sabeel Rahman, September 16, 2014
Vox.com: "The class war in American politics is over. The rich won." by Nick Carnes, September 3, 2014
Pacific Standard: "Working-Class Politicians Aren't Always Best for the Working Class" by Avital Andrews, August 4, 2014
Chicago Tribune: "Rich candidates at risk as Senate up for grabs" by John McCormick, July 9, 2014
NPR Marketplace: "Rich politicians emphasize humble beginnings," June 24, 2014
The Maine Free Press: "'Pragmatic Progressive' of Orono & 'Tom Joad' of the Allagash Vie for Democratic Nomination" by Andy O'Brien, June 5, 2014
Sunlight Foundation: "Congress has very few working class members. Here's why that matters" by Lee Drutman, June 3, 2014
The Atlantic: "Why It Matters That Politicians Have No Experience of Poverty" by Stephen Lurie, June 2, 2014
The Suncoast News: "The Rising of the American Plutocracy" by Marty Moore, April 29, 2014
AlterNet: "3 Feisty Candidates Who Proudly Defend the Working and Middle Class" by Steven Rosenfeld, April 29, 2014
BBC: "The Rich Rule Because Politicians are Rich," April 29, 2014
Talking Points Memo: "Of Course The U.S. Is An 'Oligarchy' -- We Keep Electing The Rich" by Nick Carnes, April 28, 2014
Salon: "The 1 Percent's Midterms Scam: Why It's Not About Which Party Wins In '14," by Michael Lind, April 26, 2014
Excelsior: "Los gobiernos de AL, cercados por la elite," by Carmen Alvarez, April 20, 2014
MSNBC: "What Happens when the 1% Rule," All In with Chris Hayes, April 16, 2014
The Baffler: "Proof of Wealth's Power Over Policy" by Kathleen Geier, April 10, 2014
Washington Post / The Monkey Cage: "The Rich are Running Latin America -- And Why that Matters" by Noam Lupu and Nicholas Carnes, April 8, 2014
Pacific Standard: "The 30 Top Thinkers Under 30: The Proud Kansan Who Wants to Put Middle-Class Americans in Office" by Avital Andrews, April 5, 2014
New Books in Political Science: "White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making" by Heath Brown, March 31, 2014
Democracy: A Journal of Ideas: "White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making" by Tom Perriello, Spring 2014
Examiner.com: "Assessing Class in Government Policy Making," March 7, 2014
La Vanguardia: "El gobierno de los millonarios" by Marc Bassets, January 26, 2014
Huffington Post: "How the 0.01 Percent Underwrites, And Undermines, Politics" by Paul Blumenthal, January 24, 2014
Chicago Magazine: "If You're Rich, You Probably Think You Deserve It. Here's Why." January 23, 2014
The Boston Globe: "America's White-collar Congress: Factory and Retail Workers Don't Get Elected -- And that Matters, Says Nicholas Carnes" by Matthew Wolfson, January 12, 2014
The Humboldt Beacon: "Does it matter that most members of Congress are millionaires?" by Amber Phillips, January 10, 2014
Huffington Post: "Millionaires Make Up The Majority Of Congress: Here's Why That Hurts Us" by Paul Blumenthal, January 9, 2014
Campaign for the American Reader: "What is Nicholas Carnes Reading?", January 9, 2014
Washington Post / Monkey Cage: "Congress doesn't have to be a Millionaires' Club" by Nicholas Carnes, January 8, 2014
North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC: The State of Things with Frank Statio, January 7, 2014
Washington Post / Monkey Cage: "Millionaires run our government. Here's why that matters." by Nicholas Carnes, January 7, 2014
The Page 99 Test: Nicholas Carnes's "White-Collar Government," December 31, 2013
C-SPAN 2: After Words, hosted by Kim Dixon, Politico, December 14th, 2013
Huffington Post: "Class Rules" by Glenn C. Altschuler, December 6, 2013
WRAL Radio: "Nick Carnes Discusses How the Lack of Working-class Citizens in Legislatures is Shaping Our Policies," November 19, 2013
Princeton Alumni Weekly: "Why Are There So Few Blue-Collar Lawmakers?" by Louis Jacobson, November 13, 2013
Washington Post / Monkey Cage: "Four Takeaways for Democrats from Election Night 2013" by John Sides, November 7, 2013
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb: "Q&A with Professor Nicholas Carnes" by Deborah Kalb, November 1, 2013
Detroit Free Press: "Those Governing For The People Are Not OF The People" by Nicholas Carnes, October 17, 2013
Newark Star-Ledger: "Can Blue-collar Pols Fix This White-collar Mess?" by Nicholas Carnes, October 15, 2013
Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times: "Blue-collar Candidates Needed for Our White-collar Government" by Nicholas Carnes, October 11, 2013
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Raleigh News and Observer: "We Need Blue-collar Candidates" by Nicholas Carnes, October 10, 2013
WLOB Radio Southern Maine: TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, October 6, 2013
Fox 22 Bangor: "Duke University Professor Comes to Maine" by Karina Bolster, October 3, 2013
WZON Bangor (@ 2hrs 2mins): The Pulse Morning Show with Don Cookson, October 2, 2013
Bangor Daily News: "How Poorer Politicians can Shatter the Cash Ceiling" by Nicholas Carnes, October 1, 2013
NPR/The Protojournalist: "Are There Too Many 'Hillionaires' In Washington?" by Linton Weeks, September 19, 2013
Condistintosacentos: "Como Afecta el Gobierno de los Privilegiados a la Democracia?" escrito por Nicholas Carnes y Noam Lupu, el 15 Septiembre 2013
SSN Basic Facts: "The Promise of Union Programs that Recruit and Support Workers to Run for Public Office" by Nicholas Carnes and David Broockman, August 2013
Duke Center for Instructional Technology: "TBL in My Course: An Interview with Nicholas Carnes, Sanford School of Public Policy" by Randy Riddle, August 1, 2013
WonkBlog / Washington Post: "The U.S. has Few Farmers. So Why Does Congress Love Farm Subsidies?" by Brad Plumer, July 12, 2013
SSN Forum on Money in Politics: "The Cash Ceiling" by Nicholas Carnes, July 2013
The Globe and Mail: "Taxpayers Oblivious to the Cost of Farm Subsidies" by Barrie McKenna, July 7, 2013
MyFox8 Greensboro: "Congress of Millionaires" by Bob Buckley, June 17, 2013
NPR: Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal, May 9, 2013
WonkBlog / Washington Post: "A New Study Says Politicians Don't Favor the Rich. That's Debatable" by Dylan Matthews, May 7, 2013
WonkBlog / Washington Post: "If the Millionaires' Party Ever Gets its Act Together, Watch Out" by Ezra Klein, May 6, 2013
New Republic: "Political Science in the Crosshairs: Republicans Defund Academic Studies Whose Lessons They Don't Want to Learn" by Timothy Noah, March 22, 2013
Sanford Insights: "Flipping the Classroom: Duke Emphasizes Teaching with Technology, Peer Learning" by Karen Kemp, Spring 2013
Tea Party Thunder: "'Mad Men' & the Specter of Helter-Skelter Politics" by Joseph Lamb, February 27, 2013
Truthout.Org: "What is the State of OUR Union -- Yours and Mine?" by Laura Flanders, February 12, 2013
The Raleigh News and Observer: "A Tax Reform Plan that Rewards the Wealthy and Stalls the State" by Nick Carnes, January 25, 2013
Sanford Insights: "Where are the Blue-Collar Candidates?", Fall 2012
Public Radio Tulsa: Studio Tulsa with Rich Fisher, October 29, 2012
Sanford School News: "The Elected U.S. Government is Mostly Millionaires", October 22, 2012
Too Much: "Inequality by the Numbers", October 22, 2012
NPR: On Point with Tom Ashbrook, October 18, 2012
CBS Philly: The Buzz Bissinger Show, October 16, 2012
The Wall Street Journal Online: "The Weighting Game" by James Taranto, October 15, 2012
The New York Times Sunday Review: "Which Millionaire Are You Voting For?" by Nicholas Carnes, October 13, 2012
KPSI Palm Springs: The Desert Today w/ Steve Kelly, September 25, 2012
Wisconsin Public Radio: The Joy Cardin Show, September 20, 2012
The Sanford Journal: "What's the Matter with Kansas Again?" by Nicholas Carnes, September 19, 2012
The Cap Times: "Born on Third Base, GOP Stars Would Block Others From First" by Paul Fanlund, September 10, 2012
NPR: "Inside Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan's Budget Plan" by David Gura, August 13, 2012
Annenberg: "Prince Or Pauper: Does Financial Status Matter To Voters?" by Daniel Rothberg, July 10, 2012
CNN Money: "The One Percenters in Congress" by Tami Luhby, May 8, 2012
Daily Kos: "Congress Gets Richer and the Gap Between Government and Working People Grows" by Laura Clawson, December 27, 2011
Washington Post: "Growing Wealth Widens Distance between Lawmakers and Constituents" by Peter Whorisky, December 26, 2011
Reposted by The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, The Fiscal Times, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Bend Bulletin, The Portland Press-Herald, The Provo Daily Herald, The Los Angeles Daily News, The Denver Post, West Hawaii Today, and The Bangor Daily News
Too Much: "Greed at a Glance" by the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good, September 19, 2011
WonkBlog / Washington Post: "What a Politician's Former Job Can Tell You" by Brad Plumer, September 16, 2011
538 / New York Times: "Social Status and How the Elected Vote" by John Sides, September 12, 2011
News21: "Politically Unequal" by Jessica Flores, Summer 2011
Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science: "What if Senators Represented People by Income or Race, Not by State?" by Andrew Gelman, February 7, 2010