U.S. politics expert available to comment on President-elect Joe Biden’s first steps

Matthew Lebo

Matthew Lebo, chair of Western University’s department of political science, is available to comment on U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and the road ahead without the support of a Democratic Senate.

An expert on the presidency, political parties, elections and Congress, Lebo previously served as director of the Center for Behavioral Political Economy and chair of the department of political science at Stony Brook University (New York). His book on the state of party politics in the U.S., Strategic Party Government: Why Winning Trumps Ideology, written with Greg Koger, was published in 2017.

Lebo says:

“Much like he did as Barack Obama’s Vice President, Joe Biden will come to power during a time of national crisis and will quickly reverse course on critical issues from the outgoing administration. This already started today with the announcement of his coronavirus taskforce.

“But without a Democratic Senate, Biden will need to rely on the powers of the presidency, like executive orders, and not on Congress, to address a limited set of the issues he focused on during the campaign.”

Commentary reflects the perspective and scholarly interest of Western faculty members and is not an articulation of official university policy on issues being addressed.

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