Political Science
Director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative; Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy
The New York Times
March 03, 2025
“It’s not quite a reversal, but the fact that it’s narrowing is significant,” said David Campbell, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame who was not involved with the survey.
The Washington Post
February 08, 2025
“Religion as a general concept, including religious institutions — and institutions generally — aren’t held in the same level of esteem, and trust, across the board, as they used to be,” said Dave Campbell, a professor of politics and religion at the University of Notre Dame.
Baptist News Global
December 11, 2024
“If there’s any issue where we might expect Notre Dame would have a voice that we hope the rest of the country and the world would listen to, it’s on the question of faith and religion and how it relates to democracy,” said David Campbell, professor of American Democracy and director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative.
The Washington Post
September 29, 2024
But political scientist David Campbell, co-author of “Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics,” argues that the party still has ample room for appeals to religious voters. “We don’t see any evidence that [secular voters] are hostile to Democrats who use religious language,” he told me.
Good Authority
September 11, 2024
By David E. Campbell and Christina Wolbrecht
Associated Press
September 09, 2024
Dave Campbell, a political science professor at Notre Dame, said there could be some parallels this year to the 2004 election.
The Salt Lake Tribune
July 15, 2024
The real question, Notre Dame’s David Campbell said, is why the plunge — 11 percentage points — has been so steep with Latter-day Saints. Indeed, only Muslims, at 12 percentage points, saw a bigger decline in that period.
Deseret News
July 04, 2024
Latter-day Saints are “caught in between,” David Campbell, founding director of the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame, told Sam Benson. “They feel like they don’t have a home right now in American politics.”
Deseret News, Yahoo! News
June 18, 2024
That a Republican nominee for president is not gaining majority support from Latter-day Saints is significant, says David Campbell, director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative. “This is a strongly Republican group,” Campbell said. “They should be strongly behind Trump, but they’re not.”
The New York Times
June 13, 2024
In their 2010 book, “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us,” Robert Putnam and David Campbell described the change in attitudes among religious Americans that began taking place in the 1970s.
The Economist
June 05, 2024
“We’re not talking about a massive tide of people turning out,” says David Campbell, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame.
WNDU
Video Audio
May 21, 2024
This week, [Notre Dame] is hosting its inaugural Global Democracy Conference. Serious concerns were expressed at a panel discussion on the state of democracy in the U.S. “I fear that we are going to rip apart as a country because so many of the things that used to unify Americans, no longer do,” said Notre Dame’s David Campbell. “Democrats usually have more elaborate systems about this, but the Trump campaign has also been mobilizing 100,000 election observers,” explained Notre Dame’s Christina Wolbrecht.
The Washington Post
April 05, 2024
The scholar David Campbell of the University of Notre Dame told the Associated Press, “Increasingly, Americans associate religion with the Republican Party — and if they are not Republicans themselves, they turn away from religion.”
Time
February 12, 2024
In their award-winning book Secular Surge, Notre Dame political scientist David E. Campbell and his co-authors used experiments to show that when young Americans who leaned toward the Democratic party were shown examples of politicians making Christian nationalist statements or pastors endorsing conservative political candidates, those young people were more likely to disaffiliate from religion.
Associated Press
January 10, 2024
“The data produced through this project is like the Webb telescope, only instead of distant stars, it has revealed the interior lives of many Americans — how they think and feel about their relationship to a higher power,” writes University of Notre Dame Professor David Campbell in the study’s introduction.
Daily Herald
July 15, 2023
By David Campbell, University of Notre Dame | Top leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dropped a bombshell in June 2023 by telling their flock to vote for Democrats – well, almost.
The Washington Post
July 03, 2023
As Notre Dame political science professor David Campbell, who was raised Mormon, told me, “There’s an allergic reaction among many Americans — particularly those who lean to the left politically — when religion and politics mix. We see it among Catholics. We see it among evangelicals. And we’re seeing it among Mormons.”
The Hill
May 22, 2023
But the rise in nonreligious Americans is too steep to be fully explained “in terms of generational replacement; that is, religious old people dying and secular young people taking their place,” said David Campbell, the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame. Campbell and other scholars suspect many Americans are simply becoming more open about rejecting religion, an admission once clouded in stigma.
OSV News
May 19, 2023
"One of the meta trends in the American religious landscape over the last 20 — even 30 — years has been the precipitous decline in religious affiliation and a decline in other indications of religiosity," said David Campbell, the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
The Washington Post
May 01, 2023
“The reason these rather unpopular policies succeed is because they come in under the radar screen,” said David Campbell, professor of American democracy at the University of Notre Dame.
The Hill
December 21, 2022
“Somebody who has no religious affiliation, they may well value religion,” said David Campbell, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame.
Science
July 11, 2022
“It’s a significant finding,” says David Campbell, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame who was not involved in the research. “And its rigor also sets a high standard for future studies.”
Catholic News Service
July 10, 2022
David Campbell, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame, had a distinctly different take on the question. Campbell is co-author of both “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us” and “Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics.”
The Washington Post
January 14, 2022
“Secularism is at the very heart of the battles for the soul of the Democratic Party,” write the authors, political scientists John C. Green of the University of Akron and David E. Campbell and Geoffrey C. Layman, both of the University of Notre Dame.
Religion News Service
December 14, 2021
“This is at least in part a reaction to the political environment,” said David Campbell, professor of American democracy at the University of Notre Dame who has written about American secularization.
Religion News Service
November 23, 2021
As political scientist David Campbell of the University of Notre Dame has analyzed the Congressional Election Study, the trend line for Mormons shows some decline compared with two other minority religions over the same period.
U.S. News & World Report
October 28, 2021
"There didn't seem to be a Catholic boost for him nationwide," despite the fact that Biden was poised to become only the second Catholic president in history, says David E. Campbell, a political science professor at Notre Dame University.
The Washington Post
October 14, 2021
David Campbell, a political science professor at University of Notre Dame, said the country has come a long way from its first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, who had to convince Protestants of his independence from the Catholic Church.
USA Today
September 19, 2021
David Campbell and Geoffrey Layman are professors at the University of Notre Dame; John Green is an emeritus professor at the University of Akron.
Religion News Service
July 15, 2021
David Campbell is a political scientist who teaches at the University of Notre Dame and is co-author, along with Monson and University of Akron political scientist John C. Green, of the 2014 book 鈥淪eeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics.鈥�
Associated Press
June 18, 2021
David Campbell, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the bishops鈥� vote 鈥渞eflects the fact that the same fault lines dividing all American voters also divide American Catholics 鈥� and Catholic leaders.鈥�
The Hill
May 26, 2021
鈥淭he fact of the matter is that Biden鈥檚 position reflects where most American Catholics are,鈥� said David Campbell, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and author of the new book 鈥淪ecular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics.鈥�
National Catholic Reporter
April 29, 2021
Gabbatt quotes David Campbell, chair of the department of political science at the University of Notre Dame: "Many Americans 鈥� especially young people 鈥� see religion as bound up with political conservatism, and the Republican party specifically," Campbell said.
The New York Times
April 22, 2021
Other research has also found that for some young people who were disappointed by the Trump presidency, it awakened their interest in political involvement, according to David Campbell and Christina Wolbrecht, both political scientists at Notre Dame.
The Guardian
April 05, 2021
David Campbell, professor and chair of the University of Notre Dame鈥檚 political science department and co-author of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, said a reason for the decline among those groups is political 鈥� an 鈥渁llergic reaction to the religious right鈥�.
The Daily Beast
March 21, 2021
According to political scientists David E. Campbell and Geoffrey C. Layman of the University of Notre Dame and John C. Green of the University of Akron, authors of Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics, this corruption is happening already.
Religion News Service
March 12, 2021
滨苍听Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics,聽political scientists聽David E. Campbell听补苍诲听Geoffrey C. Layman聽of the University of Notre Dame and聽John C. Green聽of the University of Akron argue that the US鈥檚 secular population is larger and more diverse than previously acknowledged 鈥� and that a big part of what鈥檚 driving secularity is actually religious people鈥檚 political behavior.
The New York Times
January 28, 2021
David Campbell, a political scientist at Notre Dame, further elaborates on Jones鈥檚 argument, writing in a June 2020 article, 鈥淭he Perils of Politicized Religion, that...
