Welcome to the semifinal round, everyone! The quarterfinal round saw four very des/pic/able people get eliminated who, while you'd not mind if they were shoved in front of a train, just aren't quite at the top level of des/pic/ability. And, here we are, in the final four!
As before, my beloved brethren, YOU will determine who survives and advances to the semifinals by voting either "yea" or "nay", which corresponds to a particular political scientist as indicated below. At about 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, March 18, balloting will close for round 4 and I will start a new thread for round 5 (the final round)!! I will do this each day until a "winner" is crowned!!
Link to round 1 thread: https://www.poliscirumors.com/topic/march-madness-most-despicable-political-scientist-round-1
Link to round 2 thread: https://www.poliscirumors.com/topic/march-madness-most-despicable-political-scientist-round-2
Link to quarterfinal round thread: https://www.poliscirumors.com/topic/march-madness-most-despicable-political-scientist-quarterfinal-round
INTRODUCING OUR FOUR SEMIFINALISTS: #2 seed in the Southern U.S., Mirya Holman (Tulane), #1 seed in the Eastern U.S., Jenn Jackson ('Cuse), #5 seed in the Midwestern U.S., Naz!ta Lajevardi; #1 seed in the Western U.S., Hakeem Jefferson (Stanford).
How they got to the semifinals:
MIRYA:
- defeated #7 seed Joel Sievert (TTU) by 32 votes in the first round.
- defeated #3 seed Emily May Ferris (TCU) by 15 votes in the first round.
- defeated #1 seed Kelebogile Zvobgo (W&M) by 8 votes in the quarterfinal round.
JENN JACKSON:
- defeated #8 seed Dannagal Young (Delaware) by 25 votes in the first round.
- defeated #5 seed Pete Hatemi (PSU) by 14 votes in the second round.
- defeated #2 seed Spencer Piston (Boston University) by 22 votes in the quarterfinal round.
NAZ!TA LAJEVARDI:
- defeated #3 seed Michelangelo Landgrave (Missouri) by 7 votes
- defeated #2 seed Justin Zimmerman (Northwestern) by 2 votes
- defeated #1 seed Julia Azari (Marquette) by 1 vote
HAKEEM JEFFERSON
- defeated #8 seed Josh Ryan (Utah State) by 30 votes
- defeated #5 seed Jake Grumbach (Washington) by 14 votes
- defeated #7 seed Cesi Cruz (UCLA) by 24 votes
Good luck to all!