Spring 2026 Fellow
Seema Mehta is a veteran political writer for the Los Angeles Times covering national and state politics, including the November special election about redistricting and the 2026 gubernatorial race. She has written about every presidential campaign since 2008, as well as multiple gubernatorial, Senate, congressional and mayoral races. Mehta was a 2018-19 Knight-Wallace fellow at the University of Michigan, where she studied how automation and artificial intelligence are indelibly changing the nation’s identity, policies and politics. The Syracuse University graduate and East Coast native swore when she joined The Times in 1998 that she would only spend a few years on the Left Coast. Many years, a house and a few cats later, she can’t imagine living somewhere she couldn’t golf year-round.
Study Group: “Politics, Polls, and Punditry — the Inner Workings of Modern-Day Campaigns”
This study group tracked California politics in real time and examined how campaigns and media coverage shape each other. We began with California’s political shift, from producing Republican presidents to serving as the base for national Democrats. We then moved into the machinery that drives outcomes, including redistricting, the jungle primary, ballot fights, and the state’s high-stakes conflicts with the Trump administration on immigration, climate, and LGBTQ+ rights. Drawing on Seema Mehta’s reporting from the campaign trail, students broke down debate coverage, polling, and messaging, and the behind-the-scenes work that decides elections, including fundraising, data, ad buying, and message testing. Guest sessions with journalists, strategists, redistricting experts, and party leaders grounded each week’s topic in current practice.
FROM A STUDENT IN SEEMA’S STUDY GROUP:
“I am able to better understand the interaction between reporting and politics, specifically Mehta gave great insight into some of the motivations behind campaign decision making.” – Brian Dunnagan