Perry Bacon Jr.

Louisville

Columnist covering policy, elections, governance and culture.
Perry Bacon Jr. is a Washington Post columnist. Before joining The Post, Perry had stints as a government and elections writer for Time magazine, The Post's national desk, theGrio and FiveThirtyEight. He has also been an on-air analyst at MSNBC and a fellow at New America. He grew up in Louisville and lives there now.
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Latest from Perry Bacon Jr.

Don’t doomscroll about Trump. Do these five things instead.

Elections are important, but they’re not the only way to advance progressive policies.

November 27, 2024

This policy area could defy political division — even under Trump

Education is a rare issue with surprisingly bipartisan and cross-ideological coalitions.

November 25, 2024
Protesters sit outside the Tennessee Capitol on March 12 in Nashville. (Seth Herald/Getty Images)

A winning strategy is hidden in these 4 theories on Harris’s loss

Economic populism can make billionaires, rather than immigrants, the central villain for voters.

November 15, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech at Howard University in D.C. on Nov. 6. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

The election was a Trump splash — but not a red wave

Don’t let the electoral map fool you. Trump did not have a sweeping victory.

November 11, 2024
Donald Trump at an election night event in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov. 6. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The second resistance to Trump must start right now

He will probably be even more extreme, radical and cruel in his second term than he was in his first.

November 6, 2024
Carole Zak, 63, called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump at a rally in downtown Detroit in 2017. (Nick Hagen for The Washington Post)

It’s a really close election — somewhere far from your house

This closeness of this election is shocking because so many states are uncompetitive.

October 24, 2024
A man walks down steps on the first day of early voting in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Oct. 15, 2020. (Logan Cyrus for The Washington Post)

Should Trump (or Harris) be running away with this race? Maybe.

Both parties have squandered opportunities that might have put them significantly ahead.

October 23, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Oct. 17, and Donald Trump in Savannah, Georgia, on Sept. 24. (Tim Evans for The Washington Post; Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

We need new political parties in very blue and very red states

The value of independence can be seen in Nebraska — and the struggles of Democrats and Republicans elsewhere.

October 21, 2024
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) on Capitol Hill on May 16, 2023. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

We listened to Trump and Harris podcasts — so you don’t have to

Both candidates are trying to humanize themselves. Is it working?

October 17, 2024

Doritos and cocaine: Harris and Trump try out podcast populism

In the final stretch of the presidential campaign, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are turning to popular lifestyle and comedy podcasts to woo different audiences. We were curious whether the candidates sounded any different in these environments than at their rallies. So columnists Charles Lane, Molly Roberts and Perry Bacon listened in and discussed what they learned.

October 15, 2024