Robert Spitzer, a professor of political science at SUNY Cortland, says Trump could get a temporary boost in the polls, but he did not expect it to carry through to November. Matthew Dallek, a professor of political history, says the historical record does not indicate politicians can successfully translate sympathy from violent attacks into election victories: "Theodore Roosevelt was shot while campaigning for the presidency in 1912 yet still lost. An assassination attempt on President Harry Truman in 1950 did not prevent his Democratic Party from losing big in the midterms later that year. Two assassination attempts were made on President Gerald Ford's life in 1975. He still lost the presidential election a year later."