About Bernard
Bernard L. Fraga is an award-winning author, professor, and elections expert.
Dr. Bernard L. Fraga is a political scientist who studies American elections, focusing on racial/ethnic politics, voter turnout, and the impact of election laws on voters and politicians. He is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Emory University, and received his B.A. in Political Science and Linguistics from Stanford University and Ph.D. in Government and Social Policy from Harvard University.
Broadly speaking, Dr. Fraga studies how racial/ethnic identity and context shape our political behaviors. His award-winning 2018 book The Turnout Gap: Race, Ethnicity, and Political Inequality in a Diversifying America provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of race and voter turnout, examining White, Black, Latinx, and Asian American voting patterns from the 1800s to the present. The Turnout Gap documents large and persistent racial/ethnic gaps in participation and explains the causes and consequences of these disparities, indicting a lack of mobilization and engagement with a diversifying electorate.
Dr. Fraga also conducts work on who runs for office, youth voter turnout, partisan competition, voter suppression, and other topics related to contemporary American elections. His research has been published in leading journals including the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Electoral Studies, Political Research Quarterly, the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, and the Stanford Law Review. Findings from Dr. Fraga’s work have been featured in various media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, National Public Radio, CNN, and The Economist, and he has won multiple awards including the APSA Section on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Best Book Award, the MPSA Lucius Barker Award, and the MPSA Latina/o Caucus Early Career Award. Dr. Fraga has also served as an expert consultant on multiple cases dealing with elections and voting rights, and regularly advises organizations dedicated to enhancing the civic and electoral engagement of all Americans.