Eric K. Ham, MPP'04 After the United States launched its war with Iran in February, journalist and political analyst Eric K. Ham, MPP’04, interviewed University of Chicago Political Science Professor Robert A. Pape for expert context. It was what Ham called “a full circle moment.” As a Harris Public Policy student more than 20 years earlier, Ham had worked through the complexities of foreign policy during the U.S. invasion of Iraq under the guidance of Pape, one of Ham’s professors at the time. “You can see the tangible evidence of Harris still very much shaping, guiding and actively playing a huge role in my career,” Ham said. “Harris had a hold on me then and it has a hold on me today.” For more than a decade, Ham has provided in-depth analysis and reporting on a wide variety of media platforms, including CTV News, the BBC, Al Jazeera, the Associated Press, The Hill and the Washington Diplomat. He also is the co-host of The Election Show podcast and author of the book, The GOP Civil War: Inside the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party, published in in 2013. In May, Ham was presented with the 2026 Harris Career Achievement Award, given to an alumnus who has served as a significant leader in the public, private, or nonprofit sector, creating meaningful positive change within their institution and society. The award is one of the Alumni Awards that the Harris Alumni Council has presented yearly since 2013 to recognize alumni who have made significant contributions to public policy. Journalism grounded in rigorous analysis Ham’s path to political analysis and journalism started with a career in policy. After graduating from University of Michigan with a degree in economics and political science, Ham, a Detroit native, worked in the Michigan legislature before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1999, when he went to work with the American Civil Liberties Union. He was in the U.S. Capitol for a hearing on flag burning on Sept. 11, 2001. When news of the terrorist attacks broke, he recalled, everyone at the hearing was immediately escorted from the Capitol building. From his earliest years as an undergraduate, Ham said he had aspired to attend graduate school. He acted on that goal in 2002 and moved to Hyde Park. “Harris was always at the top of my list,” he said. “I saw it as a place that was going to be really hard: a school that would break you down and build you back up and make you better.” The emphasis on rigorous, detailed, comprehensive analysis was more challenging than he had anticipated. But the journey was inspiring. One time, Illinois State Senator and UChicago law professor Barack Obama spoke to one of Ham’s classes in 2002. “He was so amazing, just blew me away,” Ham recalled. “After he finished speaking, he walked out and I ran after him. We had this long conversation.” Another benefit to his Harris program: Shortly before Ham’s 2004 graduation, a PhD student at Harris recommended him to the chief national security adviser to then-U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, who served in the Senate from 2001 to 2019. Ham returned to Washington and became a national security advisor on Nelson’s staff. Early on Ham re-connected with Obama, a new U.S. Senator, during Condoleezza Rice’s 2005 confirmation hearings for Secretary of State. Nelson was serving on the Foreign Relations Committee and sat next to Obama. After a moment, Obama recalled speaking to the Harris class and to Ham. Before parting ways, Obama leaned over and, with a grin, asked Ham to slip him some good questions so he'd look like the smartest guy in the room. Ham’s post with Nelson groomed him for his next job as Congressional Relations Director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) starting in 2005. He later became policy director for the 3D Security Initiative, a project in Washington, D.C., focused on developing a U.S. foreign policy more reliant on diplomacy and development and less on military defense. In that role, Ham actively engaged with the executive branch—mostly through the Pentagon—and Congress, routinely bringing delegations from civil society organizations all over the world to meet with U.S. representatives. From Left: Daniel Tollefson, AM’19, MBA'27; Diego Macera, MPP’14; Trina Reynolds-Tyler, MPP’20; Dean Ethan Bueno de Mesquita; Eric Ham, MPP’04 Your favorite analyst’s favorite analyst His shift to journalism and political analysis originated in 2010, when he was accepted into the International Career Advancement Program, run by the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs at the University of Denver in collaboration with the Aspen Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations. During the weeklong seminar bringing people together from various segments of international affairs, Ham shifted his career outlook. “I came up with the crazy idea that I was done basically making other people look smarter,” he said. “I decided it was time for me to elevate my voice; that people needed to hear me, not everybody else I was working for. I decided the way to do that was to move into the media space.” He got his start with the publication of his book in 2013 and began writing for The Hill in 2014. Soon after that, Ham joined SiriusXm Radio’s POTUS Channel as an on-air analyst before moving to host. The 2016 presidential campaign brought him opportunities with the BBC. When Donald Trump won that election, Ham joined the Associated Press. A decade later, Ham laughs about references to him being the best political analyst no one knows and your favorite analyst’s favorite analyst. He sees himself occupying a slice of the independent media space. “It’s where people who just want the facts and figures go,” he said. “That’s the lane I tend to operate in and why I do so much work with international outlets, because they make it clear this is not a space where big fights are occurring between ideologies, left and right.” That approach fits perfectly with his Harris training. “It’s about analysis, looking at policy and then breaking that policy down in terms of what it means, what its impact is,” Ham said of his Harris education. “Where can we see it and how do we measure it. Those are conversations that we’re not seeing right now in the media space. I’m not sure many journalists today know how to ask those questions, let alone get the answers people are looking for.” Extending a rewarding career Ham’s professional future might include another book, he said, perhaps about the inner workings of the Republican Party in the aftermath of the Trump takeover. When asked what he finds most rewarding about his career, he said its entirety. “I had never thought that I would actually move into the space as a journalist,” Ham said, adding that he feels “buttressed” by the training and discipline that Harris provided. “What Harris has done is extended this reward,” he said, “extended a life of being able to move into another avenue of policy and pursue and engage in what I find to be so rewarding.