Jason Johnson

Biography

Jason Johnson is a professor of political science and communications at Hiram College in Northeast Ohio.

He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and earned his PhD in political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has an impressive array of both academic and media credentials covering an array of topics from politics to popular culture.

Johnson works regularly as a political commentator and contributor for radio, television, and newspaper outlets. He has appeared on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition", "Talk of the Nation", the "Sound of Ideas" on the Cleveland NPR affiliate, "Radio Times" on the Philadelphia NPR affiliate and CKNW radio in Vancouver Canada. Johnson has also appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, the Jesse Lee Peterson Show, The Early Show on CBS, Al Jazeera English and contributed to both ABC and CBS affiliates in Youngstown, CBS in Cleveland, and currently the NBC affiliate in Cleveland Ohio. He has also appeared in Black Enterprise Magazine, the Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Through his connection with publishing conglomerate REALTIMES media, Johnson's columns appear weekly in The Chicago Defender, The Michigan Chronicle, The Michigan FrontPage, The Tri-State Defender and the New Pittsburgh Courier. His writing has covered subjects from the mundane to the sublime; from the failure of abstinence education programs targeted at African American teens to the political significance of candidate stage diving at the '96 Iowa Caucuses and Hillary Clinton's post Super-Tuesday strategy.

Johnson has been active in politics for years, making him a valuable guest or panelist in many venues. He has worked as a campaign manager and assistant slate director in House and Senate races in Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina.

Johnson's political expertise extends beyond the United States. He worked on the 2001 mayoral race in London, England, was an international election observer during Mexico’s turbulent presidential election in 2006, and was an honored guest of the Independent Electoral Commission in Johannesburg, South Africa during their parliamentary elections in 2007. In 2009 he returned to Mexico where he was again an international election observer in the Mexican mid-term elections.

His research focuses on campaign strategy and communication, in particular the differences between how political science theory suggests that political campaigns should be run, and how consultants actually run campaigns. He has two publications forthcoming in 2010. The first is a contributing chapter in "Issue Advocacy in the United States and South Africa". Published by Oxford University press in conjunction with the political science department at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. The second publication is "One Day to Sell: Campaign Managers in the Modern Age" published by Westview Press / Perseus books as part of the Transforming American politics series of books. Both the contributed chapter and the full book will be available by the summer of 2010.

If you would like to have Johnson speak to a group, be a guest
on a program, or serve as a panelist at a conference, feel free
to contact him at:

johnsonja@hiram.edu