Professor Brendan J. Doherty
Brendan J. Doherty is Professor of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy, where he teaches courses on the presidency, campaigns and elections, Congress, and American politics. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and his B.A. from Dartmouth College. In 2006-2007, he served as a Congressional Fellow of the American Political Science Association.
Doherty’s research has centered on the intersection of campaigning and governing. He is the author of Fundraiser in Chief: Presidents and the Politics of Campaign Cash (2023) and The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign (2012). His research has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Economist, and Bloomberg Businessweek.
His other published work has examined topics that include presidential fundraising, strategic presidential travel, the electoral implications of cabinet appointments, the Electoral College, presidential economic policymaking, Senate leadership, proportional representation in legislatures, speech restrictions in judicial campaigns, and the Marshall Court and federalism.
Doherty has received the Naval Academy’s 2026 Civilian Teaching Excellence Award, the 2025 Pi Sigma Alpha Award for Undergraduate Mentoring from the National Capital Area Political Science Association, and the 2012 Founders Award for the Best Conference Paper by a Ph.D.-holding Scholar from the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics section. While at Berkeley, his teaching was honored with an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. He has received research grants from the Naval Academy Research Council, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, the Institute of Governmental Studies and the Graduate Division at the University of California, Berkeley, and the American Political Science Association.
