Peter Hanson is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Grinnell College and the director of the Grinnell College National Poll. He is the author of Too Weak to Govern: Majority Party Power and Appropriations in the U.S. Senate (Cambridge University Press 2014). He is a specialist on the United States Congress and the politics of the federal budget. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Denver from 2010 to 2016, and co-led the university's Colorado Voter Poll in the 2012 election.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2010 and his A.B. from Harvard University in 1995. From 1996 - 2002, he served on the staff of Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD). His areas of focus were appropriations and environmental policy.

Photo Credit: Justin Hayworth, Grinnell College