David Wasserman

David Wasserman is the senior editor and elections analyst for the nonpartisan newsletter The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and a contributor to NBC News. Founded in 1984, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter provides analyses of U.S. presidential, Senate, House and gubernatorial races. Wasserman analyzes the current political environment in lively and entertaining presentations. His data-driven forecasting looks at national and local trends, the relationship be-tween consumer brand loyalty and voting, and what the future holds for American elections. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight has written that “Wasserman’s knowledge of the nooks and crannies of political geography can make him seem like a local,” and the Los Angeles Times called Wasserman “whip smart” and a “scrupulously nonpartisan” analyst whose “numbers nerd-dom was foretold at a young age.” Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, recently called David “pretty much the only person you need to follow on Election Night.” In 2016, Wasserman drew wide praise for his accurate pre-election analysis, including his uncanny September piece entitled “How Trump Could Win the White House While Losing the Popular Vote.” Leading Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson concluded, “Nobody of my generation knows American politics as well as Dave Wasserman.” Wasserman has served as an analyst for the NBC News Election Night Decision Desk since 2008 and has also appeared on Fox News, CNN and NPR. His commentary has been cited in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, POLITICO and The Washington Post. In 2018, his groundbreaking, interactive collaboration with FiveThirtyEight, the “Atlas of Redistricting,” took top prize for News Data App of the Year. An enthusiast for data and maps, Wasserman serves as a contributing writer to The Almanac of American Politics. He is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer for numerous organizations—including the University of Chicago Institute of Politics where he was named a resident Pritzker Fellow in 2019. Previously, Wasserman served for three years as House editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a widely respected political analysis newsletter. A native of New Jersey, Wasserman is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he was awarded the 2006 Emmerich-Wright Outstanding Thesis prize.