Lindsey Cormack (lcormack)

Lindsey Cormack

Associate Professor of Political Science

School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

Research

Lindsey Cormack is an associate professor of Political Science at Stevens Institute of Technology. She has authored two books, How to Raise a Citizen (And Why it’s Up to You to Do It) and Congress and U.S. Veterans: From the GI Bill to the VA Crisis. She created and maintains the digital database of all official Congress-to-constituent e-newsletters at www.dcinbox.com. She earned her PhD in Government from New York University. She currently serves as the Secretary for Manhattan Community Board 8.

Her research has been published in Political Behavior, Congress & the Presidency, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Science Research and Methods, American Politics Research, Politics & Policy, Politics Groups & Identities, Politics & Gender, The Journal of Gender Studies, Energy Economics, The Legislative Scholar as well as in popular outlets including the Bloomberg Businesswire, The New York Times, The Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, ProPublica, Roll Call, The New York Post, NBC News, the LSE USCentre, and The Hill, The Conversation, The San Francisco Chronicle, and more.

General Information

Instagram
@HowToRaiseACitizen
DCinbox on X
@DCinbox

Experience

While at NYU, Cormack worked with former Governor David A. Paterson as an educational liaison and adjunct instructor. Prior to joining Stevens, she taught at Yeshiva University.

Institutional Service

  • Promotion & Tenure Committee Member
  • Faculty Senate Parliamentarian Member
  • School of Computing Faculty Search Committee Member
  • QSS Area Coordinator Chair
  • Hiring Committee Member
  • Transfer advisor Chair
  • IGNITE Chair
  • Sigma Phi Epsilon Chair
  • Board of Trustees Academic and Student Affairs Committee Member
  • QSS Hiring Committee Chair Chair
  • 10-Year Strategic Plan Committee Member
  • Committee on Committees Member
  • Major Advisor Chair
  • Board of Trustees Facilities Committee Member
  • (2) Lead on the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge at the request of President Nariman Farvardin Chair
  • Committee on Committes Chair

Professional Service

  • Community Board 8 Secretary of Community Board 8
  • Legislative Studies Quarterly Journal Editor
  • Government That Doesn’t Suck Co-Host
  • National Constitution Center Civic Parenting — Co-host/collaborator
  • Judicial Delegate
  • Center for the Study of Democratic Politics Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Conference Host
  • 3Streams Editor
  • National Science Foundation Served as a reviewer and panelist for the National Science Foundation
  • Academic Advisory Board Member for McGraw-Hill texts on American politics
  • Editor of The Innovation Journal - ISSN 1715-3816
  • Midwest Political Science Association Chair for the Political Communication section for the 2020 Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting
  • Southern Political Science Association Pi Sigma Alpha Award Committee Southern Political Science Association Pi Sigma Alpha Award Committee
  • Consulted on the American Contacts Congress project for Allison-Bunnell (AB) Consulting

Honors and Awards

Writings - published books

2024. Cormack, Lindsey. How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It). Jossey-Bass an imprint of Wiley

2018. Cormack, Lindsey. Congress and US Veterans: From the GI Bill to the VA Crisis. Praeger: ABC-CLIO.

Book Chapters

2026. Cormack, Lindsey “Voices of Influence: Outside Interests and Surrogate Representation” in Divided Nation Analyzing Policy, Behavior, and Institutional Challenges in Modern American Democracy Edited by: Jamie L. Carson and Ryan D. Williamson De Gruyter

2023. Chapter 4, “Voicing Support for Black Lives Matter in Congress and Its Impact on the 2020 House Elections” in Identity Politics in US National Elections Edited by Tauna S. Sisco, Jennifer C. Lucas, and Christopher J. Galdieri. Palgrave

2017. Book Preface. Today's Environmental Issues: Democrats and Republicans Edited by Teri J. Walker, ABC-CLIO

Writings - published journal articles in refereed journals

2026. Cormack, Lindsey. "More Chances, Fewer Problems? Revisiting Ranked Choice Voting Errors in New York City." American Politics Research

2024. Green, John, Kelsey Shoub, Rachel Blum, and Lindsey Cormack. “Cross-Platform Partisan Positioning in Congressional Speech” Political Research Quarterly

2024. Cormack, Lindsey, and Jeff Gulati. "Black lives matter messaging across multiple congressional communication mediums." Politics, Groups, and Identities: 1-25.

2023. Gulati, Jeff, and Lindsey Cormack. "Voicing Support for Black Lives Matter in Congress and Its Impact on the 2020 House Elections." In Identity Politics in US National Elections, pp. 41-63. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

2024. Cormack, Lindsey. "More Choices, More Problems? Ranked Choice Voting Errors in New York City." American Politics Research: 1532673X231220640.

2023. Blum, Rachel, Lindsey Cormack, and Kelsey Shoub. "Conditional Congressional communication: how elite speech varies across medium." Political Science Research and Methods 11, no. 2 (2023): 394-401.

2022. Lindsey Cormack & Kirsten Meidlinger. “Congressional Communicationin a Pandemic: “Follow the Leader” Politics and Responsive Representation.” Congress & the Presidency, DOI: 10.1080/07343469.2021.1955037

2022. Marin Hellwege, Julia, and Lindsey Cormack. "Writing “Home” in a Pandemic: The Prevalence of Gendered Topics in Congressional COVID-19 Communications." The Forum, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 293-310.

2022. Cormack, Lindsey, and Kristyn L. Karl. "Why Women Earn High Marks: Examining the Role of Partisanship and Gender in Political Evaluations." Politics & Gender, 1-30.

2021. Cormack, Lindsey. "Strength in numbers: The forces of constituency size, legislator identity, and institutional position on veterans’ representation." Social Science Quarterly 102, no. 6 (2021): 2849-2862.

2021. Brown, Heath, and Lindsey Cormack. "Angry about Fraud: How Congress Took up Trump’s Claims of Fraud." The Forum, vol. 19, no. 1, 77-95. De Gruyter.

2021. Karl, Kristyn L., and Lindsey Cormack. "Big Boys Don’t Cry: Evaluations of Politicians Across Issue, Gender, and Emotion." Political Behavior, 1-22.

2021. Cormack, Lindsey, and Heath Brown. "A decade of congressional efforts to conduct and communicate oversight of Medicare and Medicaid." Public Policy & Aging Report 31, no. 2: 47-52.

2019. Cormack, Lindsey. "Leveraging Peer‐to‐Peer Connections to Increase Voter Participation in Local Elections." Politics & Policy 47, no. 2: 248-266

2018. Cormack, Lindsey. “Gender and Vote Revelation Strategy in Congress” Special Issue: Celebrating the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage in Britain and Ireland Journal of Gender Studies 24(5), 1-15

2017. Afkhami, Mohamad, Lindsey Cormack, and Hamed Ghoddusi. "Google search keywords that best predict energy price volatility." Energy Economics 67: 17-27.

2017. Cormack, Lindsey. "DCinbox—Capturing every congressional constituent e-newsletter from 2009 onwards." The Legislative Scholar 2, no. 1: 27-34.

2016. Cormack, Lindsey. "Extremity in congress: communications versus votes." Legislative Studies Quarterly 41, no. 3: 575-603.

2015. Cormack, Lindsey. "Gender and vote revelation strategy in the United States Congress." Journal of Gender Studies 25, no. 6: 626-640.

Professional Societies

  • APSA – American Political Science Association Member
  • PolNet – Chair of the Political Networks Political Ties Award Committee Member
  • NYCDH – New York City Digital Humanities Member
  • SPSA – Southern Political Science Association Member
  • APSA – American Political Science Association Member

Grants, Contracts and Funds

Jack Miller Center Civic Innovator ($10,000) 2026
CAL Research Seed Grant ($4,000) 2017-2018

Selected Publications

Book

  1. Cormack, L. (2025). How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It). Updated paperback edition.
  2. Cormack, L. (2025). How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It) - The Updated Paperback. Wiley.
  3. Cormack, L. (2024). How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It). Jossey-Bass an imprint of Wiley.
    www.howtoraiseacitizen.com.
  4. Cormack, L. (2018). Congress and U.S. Veterans: From the GI Bill to the VA Crisis. New York, NY: Praeger.
    https://www.amazon.com/Congress-U-S-Veterans-Crisis-Conflict/dp/1440858365.

Book Chapter

  1. Cormack, L. N.; Gulati, J. (2023). Voicing Support for Black Lives Matter in Congress and Its Impact on the 2020 House Elections. Identity Politics in US National Elections . Palgrave.

Invited Podcast

  1. Cormack, L. (2023). . Niskanen Center.
    https://www.niskanencenter.org/how-congress-communicates/.

Journal Article

  1. Cormack, L. (2026). More Chances, Fewer Problems? Revisiting Ranked Choice Voting Errors in New York City. American Politics Research (3 ed., vol. 54).
  2. Cormack, L. (2024). Black lives matter messaging across multiple congressional communication mediums. Politics, Groups, and Identities (pp. 1-25). Politics, Groups, and Identities.
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21565503.2023.2265896.
  3. Cormack, L. (2024). Cross-Platform Partisan Positioning in Congressional Speech. Political Research Quarterly . Political Research Quarterly .
    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10659129241236685?journalCode=prqb.
  4. Cormack, L. (2024). More Choices, More Problems? Ranked Choice Voting Errors in New York City. American Politics Research (3 ed., vol. 52, pp. 306-319). SAGE Publications.
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673x231220640.
  5. Cormack, L. (2023). Conditional Congressional communication: how elite speech varies across medium (2 ed., vol. 11, pp. 394-401). Political Science Research and Methods .
    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-science-research-and-methods/article/conditional-congressional-communication-how-elite-speech-varies-across-medium/55843048FF94951843F5982B0F528DA4.
  6. Cormack, L. (2021). Strength in numbers: The forces of constituency size, legislator identity, and institutional position on veterans’ representation. Social Science Quarterly (6 ed., vol. 102, pp. 2849-2862). Wiley.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13097.
  7. Marin Hellwege, J.; Cormack, L.. Writing “Home” in a Pandemic: The Prevalence of Gendered Topics in Congressional COVID-19 Communications. Women, Politics & Policy. Women, Politics & Policy.
  8. Brown, H.; Cormack, L. (2021). Angry about Fraud: How Congress Took up Trump’s Claims of Fraud. The Forum (1 ed., vol. 19, pp. 77-95). De Gruyter.
  9. Cormack, L.; , K. M.. Congressional Communication in a Pandemic: Follow the Leader Politics and Responsive Representation. Congress & The Presidency. Taylor & Francis.
  10. Karl, K.; Cormack, L. (2021). Big Boys Don’t Cry: Evaluations of Politicians Across Issue, Gender, and Emotion. Political Behavior .
    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-021-09727-5.
  11. Cormack, L.; Karl, K. (2021). Why Women Earn High Marks: Examining the Role of Partisanship and Gender in Political Evaluations. . Politics & Gender.
    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-gender/article/abs/why-women-earn-high-marks-examining-the-role-of-partisanship-and-gender-in-political-evaluations/21119FD492E54FC801DD68AA9250C1D1.
  12. Cormack, L.; Blum, R.; Shoub, K.. Conditional Congressional Communication: How Elite Speech Varies Across Medium. Political Science Research and Methods.
  13. Cormack, L.; Brown, H. (2021). A Decade of Congressional Efforts to Conduct and Communicate Oversight of Medicare and Medicaid. The Gerontological Society of America: Public Policy & Aging Report (2 ed., vol. 31, pp. 47-52).
    https://doi.org/10.1093/ppar/prab003.
  14. Cormack, L. (2019). Leveraging Peer-to-Peer Connections to Increase Voter Participation in Local Elections. Politics & Policy (2 ed., vol. 47, pp. 248-266).
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/polp.12297.

Magazine/Trade Publication

  1. Cormack, L. (2024). How to Talk to Your Children About Politics, Abortion and America’s Future. The Good Men Project .
  2. Cormack, L. (2024). How to Talk to Your Children About Politics, Abortion and America’s Future. The 74.
  3. Cormack, L. (2024). We can and must start early and teach students to become active citizens. The Hechinger Report.
  4. Cormack, L. (2024). (6) Opinion: Use the presidential election to teach kids about politics — not partisanship . MarketWatch .
  5. Cormack, L. (2024). How to Ensure Your College-Bound Kids Get to the Voting Booth. Parenting Teens & Tweens.
    https://parentingteensandtweens.com/making-sure-your-teen-can-vote/.
  6. Cormack, L. (2024). (10) How to Get Teens Engaged in Politics and Motivated to Vote. Parenting Teens & Tweens.

Newsletter

  1. Cormack, L. (2025). DCinbox Insights. Substack.
  2. Cormack, L. (2024). (11) I’ve been studying congressional emails to constituents for 15 years − and found these 4 trends after scanning 185,222 of them. The Conversation.
  3. Cormack, L. (2023). The Politically Feasible Path to Federal Legalization of Psychedelics.
    https://medium.com/3streams/veterans-the-politically-feasible-path-to-federal-legalization-of-psychedelics-229c139cb352.
  4. Cormack, L. (2023). Word Choice Matters: How Congressional Republicans are Fueling Political Dysfunction.
    https://medium.com/3streams/word-choice-matters-how-congressional-republicans-are-fueling-political-dysfunction-af540f3f623e.

Newspaper Article

  1. Cormack, L. (2026). America’s 250th Is an Invitation to Help Kids Understand Exactly What This Country Is All About. New York Post.
    https://nypost.com/2026/06/28/opinion/nows-the-time-to-find-out-what-kids-think-about-amercas-founding/.
  2. Cormack, L. (2025). Your kids are inheriting this democracy. Are you teaching them how it works? . USA Today.
  3. Cormack, L. (2024). How can individual action keep democracy alive?. Washington Post.
  4. Cormack, L. (2024). Teaching kids to be better citizens should start at home . The Hill .
  5. Cormack, L. (2024). Civics education can help reduce US political polarization. The Kansas City Star.
  6. Cormack, L. (2024). This Election Season, Parents Should Embrace Talking Politics with Their Kids . The New Jersey Globe.
  7. Cormack, L. (2019). Veterans and the Republican Party? The contrast between cultural narratives and partisan ideology. The New Jersey Star Ledger. New Jersey.

Other

  1. Cormack, L. (2023). Can Artificial Intelligence be Regulated?. The Times of India.
    https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/international/can-artificial-intelligence-be-regulated/videoshow/99675688.cms.
  2. Cormack, L. (2023). . Niskanen Center.
    https://www.niskanencenter.org/how-congress-communicates/.
  3. Cormack, L. (2023). Biden faces 'grim' prospects with new divided Congress. UPI.
    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/01/03/Congress-Biden-divided-government/3581672309881/.
  4. Cormack, L. (2020). Voting By Mail This November: Could It Work? How Prepared Are We?. NEWS POINTS – Stevens Announcements CAMPUS & COMMUNITY.

quoted in this work

  1. Cormack, L. (2023). Can Artificial Intelligence be Regulated?. The Times of India.
    https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/international/can-artificial-intelligence-be-regulated/videoshow/99675688.cms.
  2. Cormack, L. (2023). Biden faces 'grim' prospects with new divided Congress. UPI.
    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/01/03/Congress-Biden-divided-government/3581672309881/.

Courses

HSS 363 Judicial Process
HHS 355 U.S. Foreign Relations
HHS 371 Modern US Presidency and the Legislative Process
HSS 379 International Politics
HSS 360 Public Policy Analysis
HSS 127 Introduction to Political Science I: National Government
HSS 128 Introduction to Political Science II: Judicial Process
CAL 510 Foundations of Technology and Policy
CAL 498 Thesis Preparation
CAL 499 Senior Thesis