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 look at President Trump's embrace of Vladimir Putin as he turns his back on U.S. ally, Ukraine, as well as mass firings at government agencies and how that will affect the services they provide.
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Trump has shown an affinity with many of the little guys — what he called in 2017 "the forgotten men and women." But he also has shown an affinity with some of the fattest cats of all. -
Presidential inaugurations are by definition historic acts, but when we think of past Inauguration Days there is clearly a hierarchy of historical pop. -
Jimmy Carter's one-term presidency saw several foreign policy achievements, but was marked by economic struggles at home and the year-long Iranian hostage crisis.
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Jimmy Carter's time after leaving the White House often overshadows his presidency. How has that shaped his legacy?
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Jimmy Carter was a former one-term governor from Georgia, almost unknown nationally, when he broke through in Iowa and New Hampshire early in 1976 and rode that momentum all the way to Washington. -
It's unclear how the issue of ownership of the Panama Canal became a talking point for President-elect Donald Trump this week, but the question has a long political history. -
Vows to shrink the deficit, pay down the debt and run government more like a business have long been a stock element of politics. Candidates for office who have business backgrounds made it a mantra. -
Nominees for several key Cabinet posts in the new administration of President-elect Trump caught officials in Washington off guard and ignited a firestorm of criticism — not all of it from Democrats. -
The lessons of history about second-term presidents and second-term Republicans in particular are not just the stuff of textbooks. They can offer guidance and perhaps even temper expectations.
