The Rodel Institute is delighted to announce that Mia Costa’s How Politicians Polarize: Political Representation in an Age of Negative Partisanship has won the 2026 Edwards Book Award. The prize will be conferred at the Rodel Fellowship Reunion in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2027. The Edwards Book Award is given annually to a book that advances the understanding and practice of democracy and American politics.

Published by the University of Chicago Press, How Politicians Polarize explores the causes and consequences of negative partisan representation, in which politicians prioritize attacking the opposing party rather than responding to the policy preferences of their own constituents. In this rigorously researched book, Dr. Costa challenges the conventional wisdom that voters drive negative representation and polarization. Instead, she finds that voters are largely motivated by substantive policy concerns. Dr. Costa’s analysis shows that politicians are selectively incentivized to engage in negative partisan attacks by media, donors, and party elites.

Lizzy McCourt Noonan, the Rodel Institute’s Executive Director of the Edwards Book Award and Rodel Fellowship, said, “In today’s polarized political climate, Dr. Costa offers hope that we are not doomed to an endless cycle of partisan animosity. She shows us that voters care more about substantive policy representation than partisan attacks, and that politicians can chart a different path forward focused on civility and productive outcomes for their communities.”

Mia Costa is assistant professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College, where she is also a faculty associate in the Program in Quantitative Social Science. Her research focuses on political representation, political behavior, and the politics of race, gender, and identity in the United States. She has published articles in the American Journal of Political Science, Politics & Gender, Political Research Quarterly, and Political Behavior, among others.

Learn more about the Edwards Book Award and past recipients at www.rodelinstitute.org/programs/programs-edwards-book-award/.