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Norman Ornstein
Ornstein is co-host of AEI’s Election Watch series, and is a BBC News election analyst. He formerly led a working group of scholars and practitioners to help shape the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold).
Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He is co-host of AEI’s Election Watch series, is a contributing editor and columnist for National Journal and The Atlantic, and a BBC News election analyst.
Doctor Ornstein previously served as co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project and senior counselor to the Continuity of Government Commission (established after 9/11). A long-time observer and analyst of American politics and US Congress, Dr. Ornstein has been involved in political reform for decades—particularly campaign finance reform. He played a role in creating the Congressional Office of Compliance and the House Office of Congressional Ethics.
His campaign finance working group of scholars and practitioners helped shape the major law, known as McCain/Feingold, that reformed the campaign financing system.
His many books include bestsellers One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported,” with E.J. Dionne and Thomas E. Mann (2017), and It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the new Politics of Extremism (2012); The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track with Thomas Mann (2006); and The Permanent Campaign and Its Future (2000).
Doctor Ornstein has a Ph.D. and a master’s in political science from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from the University of Minnesota.