Bruce Wolpe, a former senior advisor in both US Congress and the Prime Minister's Office in Canberra, has joined the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney (USSC) as a Visiting Fellow.

Mr Wolpe has contributed analysis and opinion for over two decades here in Australia, most recently as a regular contributor to Sky News, commenting on American politics. He was previously Senior Advisor to Democratic congressman Henry Waxman, Chairman and later Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He has also served as chief of staff to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

In the lead up to the US midterm elections, Mr Wolpe will write a weekly blog for the USSC with insights into the campaign and the issues dominating the race for control of Congress. He will also be a regular contributor to the Centre's weekly US politics digest, The 45th.

"Bruce's decades of experience as a political advisor and commentator will greatly enrich the Centre's stable of experts, especially as we enter the final stretch of the midterm elections, and as the 2020 presidential race gets underway next year," CEO Professor Simon Jackman said.

"There is certainly no one in Australia and few outside the United States who know as much as Bruce does about US domestic policy, the fault lines it creates between and within Democrats and Republicans, and the way politics gets done on the Hill."

"This is a wonderful opportunity, at a truly pivotal moment in American politics, to join the pre-eminent academic and policy institution in Australia dedicated to understanding and underscoring the very special relationship between our two countries," Mr Wolpe said.

"It is a privilege to join Simon Jackman and the superb team that make USSC such a successful, indeed indispensable, enterprise."

BRUCE WOLPE

Bruce Wolpe has been an expert commentator and analyst for over two decades in Australia on US politics and policy, appearing regularly on Sky News and ABC News. In recent years, he has worked with the Democrats in Congress during President Barack Obama's first term, and on the staff of Prime Minister Julia Gillard. He has also served as the former PM's chief of staff. He is the co-author of a new book, The Committee, a study of President Obama's legislative agenda in Congress (University of Michigan Press, 2018). From 1998-2009, Bruce was a senior executive at Fairfax Media in Sydney. He is also the author of Lobbying Congress: How The System Works (Congressional Quarterly Books, 1990, 1996).

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Drew Sheldrick
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