Tatishe M. Nteta profile photo

Tatishe M. Nteta

Provost Professor of Political Science / Director of UMass Poll | Political Science

Amherst, MA, UNITED STATES, Thompson Hall, 408

413-545-3546 nteta@polsci.umass.edu

Tatishe Nteta's research lies at the intersection of the politics of race and ethnicity, public opinion, and political behavior.

Expertise

Political PollsAmerican PoliticsPolitics and Political AnalysisRace Culture and EthnicityPolling

Biography

Tatishe Nteta directs the UMass Amherst Poll, combining the latest Internet polling technology, conducted through YouGov, with leading political science expertise in both Massachusetts and national affairs. Nteta’s research interests lie at the intersection of the politics of race and ethnicity, public opinion and political behavior. His work examines the impact of changing demographics and shifts in the sociopolitical incorporation of racial minorities on the contours of American race relations, policy preferences and participation.

Social Media

Video

Publications

Documents

Photos

Audio/Podcasts

Video

Image for vimeo videos on UMass Amherst Changemakers: Tatishe NtetaImage for vimeo videos on UMass Political Poll Results Breakdown | Connecting Point | Nov. 30, 2018Image for vimeo videos on  Diversity in Politics & 2045 “Minority White” Projection | Connecting Point

Education

University of California, Berkeley

Ph.D., Political Science

University of Maryland

B.A., African American Studies and Government and Politics

Select Media Coverage

Poll: Trump voters say racism against white Americans is a bigger problem than racism against Black Americans

Yahoo! News  online

2023-08-02

Tatishe Nteta, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and director of the UMass Poll, who’s been surveying how Americans feel about reparations for two years, acknowledges the low popularity of reparations, but notes it’s bigger than public opinion. “Reparations policy is not necessarily about public opinion,” Nteta told Yahoo News. “It’s about the recognition by a private institution, individuals or governments. It’s about atoning for the mistreatment directed at a particular group.”

Image for media appearances on Poll: Trump voters say racism against white Americans is a bigger problem than racism against Black Americansview more

How Do You Put A Price On America's Original Sin?

NPR  radio

2023-03-27

When he first started polling on reparations three years ago, Tatishe Nteta at the University of Massachusetts Amherst expected money to be the big issue or how to make it all work. But that's not what he found. "A plurality of Americans believe that the problem with reparations - the reason why they oppose reparations is because they don't believe the descendants of slaves deserve reparations. So this is not a question of logistics or economics. It's a question of deservedness," Nteta says.

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With political and policy differences, relationship between Wu and Healey may be more complicated than it seems

The Boston Globe  print

2022-11-19

“A number of progressives and Democrats assume that Maura Healey is going to be a progressive governor,” said Tatishe Nteta, a pollster and political science professor at UMass Amherst. But her agenda “doesn’t sound like a progressive to me.”

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Push to repeal new Mass. driver's license law ramps up

Wall Street Journal  online

2022-06-29

Tatishe Nteta, director of the UMass Poll, discusses recent poll results on issues including the economy, presidential candidates for the 2024 election and rights for undocumented immigrants.

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California could soon give reparations to Black people. Here's what that could look like

USA Today  print

2022-06-17

Tatishe Nteta is interviewed for a story about what it could look like if California chooses to pay reparations to descendants of enslaved people.

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Black Support of Black Lives Matter Movement in Decline, Poll Finds

BET  online

2022-05-31

In an article citing a “Newsweek” report about support for the Black Lives Matter movement among Black Americans, UMass Poll director Tatishe Nteta says "What is somewhat surprising is that this decline is seen across the board, with ardent supporters of police reforms such as progressives, Democrats, African Americans and young Americans also exhibiting a decrease in their support for these changes."

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Black women know how Ketanji Brown Jackson feels

San Francisco Chronicle  print

2022-03-28

Tatishe Nteta discusses results of a new national UMass Amherst poll show that more than two-thirds of Republicans believe the House of Representatives should impeach President Joe Biden if the GOP retakes the House in this fall’s midterm elections.

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Charlie Baker and the Rise of One-Party Rule

The Atlantic  print

2022-03-27

Tatishe Nteta, director of the UMass Poll, is quoted in an article examining the potential of single-party rule by Democrats in Massachusetts following the announcement that Gov. Charlie Baker will not seek a third term this fall. Should a Democrat win the governorship, Massachusetts “will become a beacon for what progressive politics can do,” Nteta says.

the atlanticview more

WCVB/UMass poll: Pollster breaks down NH numbers

WCVB Boston  tv

2020-02-04

How solid are these NH poll numbers? UMass Amherst Poll Director Tatishe Nteta breaks it down. Tatishe Nteta discusses polling a week before the 2020 New Hampshire presidential primary.

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Select Publications

Family Ties? The Limits of Fathering Daughters on Congressional Behavior

American Politics Research

Mia Costa1, Jill S. Greenlee, Tatishe Nteta, Jesse H. Rhodes, Elizabeth A. Sharrow

2019-02-04

Scholars have long suggested that familial life can affect political behavior and, more recently, have found that fathering daughters leads men to adopt more liberal positions on gender equality policies. However, few have focused on the impact of fathering a daughter on congressional behavior, particularly in an era of heightened partisan polarization.

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Politicians Should Know When to Retire

Newsweek

Tatishe Nteta, Jesse Rhodes, and Adam Eichen

2023-08-07

"There are strong signs that Americans are uneasy with the graying of our nation's leadership. In June, we asked a representative sample of over 1,000 Americans whether they support the passage of a constitutional amendment that would establish a maximum age to serve in the U.S. Senate. We found that over two-thirds of Americans (67 percent) expressed support for this constitutional amendment, with only 11 percent expressing opposition to such a change."

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Understanding White Polarization in the 2016 Vote for President: The Sobering Role of Racism and Sexism

Political Science Quarterly

Brian Schaffner, Matthew MacWiliam, Tatishe Nteta

2018-03-25

THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN FEATURED major-party candidates who both explicitly put issues of race and gender at the forefront of the discourse.

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Here’s how female candidates can sway fathers’ votes — if their first child is a daughter

The Washington Post

Elizabeth A. Sharrow, Jill Greenlee, Jesse H. Rhodes and Tatishe M. Nteta

2018-11-03

In the 2018 midterm election campaign, many female gubernatorial candidates have argued that their campaigns would be good for young women and girls in their states. ... Our research, newly published at Political Behavior, suggests that some voters — in particular, fathers whose first child is a girl — are indeed influenced by such claims.

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Whites oppose — and blacks support — paying NCAA athletes, especially when they’re thinking about race

The Washington Post

Tatishe M. Nteta, Kevin Wallsten and Lauren A. McCarthy

2018-05-14

Most Americans are skeptical about paying college athletes. But public opinion on this divides sharply by race. Most whites oppose “pay for play”; most African Americans support it.

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