David Edward Campbell (born November 29, 1971) is a Canadian political scientist and is the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame and the founding director of the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy. He is currently the Director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative.
Campbell was born on November 29, 1971, in Medicine Hat, Alberta. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Brigham Young University and Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in political science from Harvard University. His doctoral advisors were Robert D. Putnam and Paul E. Peterson. Campbell is married with two children.
Campbell has co-authored the books See Jane Run: How Women Politicians Matter for Young People with Christina Wolbrecht;Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics with Geoffrey C. Layman and John C. Green; American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us with Robert D. Putnam; and Seeking the Promised Land Mormons and American Politics with Quin Monson and John C. Green. He is also the author of Why We Vote: How Communities Shape our Civic Lives.
Campbell has written about how the rise of secularism in the United States is a direct consequence of a backlash against the close ties between the religious right and the Republican Party. As he summarized his research in an interview, "I would say to churches, on both the left and the right, that if you want to bring people back to the pews, you want to stay out of politics."
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