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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The Thomas-Crow connection recalls past relationships that caught the attention of Congress, resulting in hearings that undermined a potential chief justice and the court's longest-serving member. -
Call them whistleblowers or traitors, call their actions conscientious or unconscionable, the people who decide on their own to share classified material have often altered the course of events. -
President Nixon was named as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the Watergate scandal, and President Clinton was impeached following the fallout from his affair with a White House intern. -
President Biden this week called for the reinstatement of an assault weapons ban, a law that had roots in a 1989 shooting in a California schoolyard. Here's a look at what got that ban on the books. -
In terms of domestic politics, the Iraq War followed the trajectory of the Vietnam War, which also relied on a resolution supporting the use of military force that Congress passed and later repealed. -
It should also be noted that making a show of presidential ambition early but then backing off has been an excellent way to get on the national ticket, albeit in the role of running mate. -
It is worth remembering that the U.S., while surely spied upon, has been the world leader in developing aerial reconnaissance through at least the last few generations of technology -
Vice President Harris' ascent to her current position represents a long step toward making women's full political equality a reality in both parties. -
In the era of primetime coverage, the State of the Union offers a rare opportunity for a president to address — and for members to be seen by — a truly national television audience. -
We have been here before. But this time the House's new Republican majority is largely driven by a faction that says it will hold the debt limit vote as a hostage to win policy changes.
