Matt Grossmann is Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) and Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University.
Since 2016, Grossmann has led IPPSR’s work in public policy research, political leadership, and survey research. Under his leadership, IPPSR has expanded faculty involvement and student policy fellowships, developed new legislative training opportunities, and created additional ways for researchers to engage policymakers. Grossmann also contributed to research and analysis supporting Michigan’s independent redistricting process.
His collaborative data projects include the Correlates of State Policy, CongressData, and SenateData, which bring together extensive information on state policies, congressional representation, and political institutions.
His latest book, Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2024), coauthored with David A. Hopkins, explains how the diploma divide has reshaped party coalitions and American institutions. His forthcoming book, Policymaking for Realists: A Playbook for Policy Progress Despite Political Decay (University of Chicago Press, 2027), shows how policymakers can still achieve policy change amid polarization and partisan parity. He was named a 2025-2027 Andrew Carnegie Fellow and served as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago in 2025-2026.
Grossmann’s other books include How Social Science Got Better (Oxford, 2021), Red State Blues (Cambridge, 2019), Asymmetric Politics (Oxford, 2016, with Hopkins), Artists of the Possible (Oxford, 2014), and The Not-So-Special Interests (Stanford, 2012). He is also coauthor of the most used campaigns textbook, Campaigns & Elections (W. W. Norton).
He has also published dozens of journal articles in 23 academic journals. He collaborates on CongressData and the Correlates of State Policy, integrating extensive data to create accessible tools. His work has been funded by the Kellogg, Joyce, Hewlett, and Russell Sage foundations.
Grossmann is also a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center in Washington, DC, where he hosts The Science of Politics Podcast. With his wife Sarah, he owns Hooked, an independent bookstore and café in Lansing with regular community events.
He has published op-eds in The New York Times and The Washington Post, was a contributor to FiveThirtyEight, and regularly serves as an expert on American state and national politics.
He received a bachelor’s degree from Claremont McKenna College, a master’s degree in political science in 2002 and doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2007.
Grossmann is available at grossm63@msu.edu, on Twitter @mattgrossmann, and at http://www.mattg.org