Professor Hillygus has published widely on the topics of American political behavior, campaigns and elections, survey methods, public opinion, and information technology and politics. She is co-author of Making Young Voters: Converting Civic Attitudes into Civic Action (Cambridge University Press, 2020), The Persuadable Voter: Wedge Issues in Political Campaigns (Princeton University Press, 2008), and The Hard Count: The Social and Political Challenges of the 2000 Census (Russell Sage Foundation, 2006). She is Director of the Duke Initiative on Survey Methodology and Co-Director of the Polarization Lab. From 2003 to 2009, she taught at Harvard University, where she was the Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor of Government and founding Director of the Program on Survey Research.

Professor Hillygus earned her PhD and MA in Political Science from Stanford University. She earned a MA and BA in Political Science, and BA in Spanish from the University of Arkansas.