Near the eve of the November 3, 2026 election, University of Denver Professor Seth Masket will shine a light on some of the surprising differences between how our political parties deal with losses–and fight for survival. Appealing to voters of all parties, this talk by a leading scholar will raise important questions—and point out intriguing dynamics–about party identity, and how parties and their voters deal with wins and losses and hopes for the future. Piedmont Mayor Betsy Smegal Andersen will introduce the speaker.

Visiting here from Colorado, Masket is hosted by the League of Women Voters of Piedmont. His deep real-time research via interviews with party leaders, insiders, and voters reveals insights and contradictions into how our country’s two main parties operate…from grassroots to top leadership. His just-published book (June 2026), The Elephants in the Room: How Trump Voters Seized the Party from Republican Leaders and prior volume (2020), Learning from Loss: The Democrats 2016-2020, are based on real-time investigations and conversations, and provide unique–and remarkable–insights. With his dry sense of humor, he’ll help answer the very timely question, How did we get here?

Dr. Seth Masket is a professor of political science at the University of Denver. He researches and teaches about political parties, state legislatures, and campaigns and elections. Masket regularly contributes to Politico, the NYT, and to The Smotus Report Substack newsletter. His recently-published books are based on real-time investigations and conversations, and provide unique–and surprising–insights. Masket holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a doctorate from UCLA. He was the Senior Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University in 2024-25.

For more information on Seth Masket visit https://www.sethmasket.com/

$40.00 for LWV Members
$45.00 for Non-Members