Charles Edward Cook Jr. (born November 20, 1953) is an American political analyst.

His father was a highly decorated officer in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, and an electrical engineering graduate from the University of Arkansas.

[1] Cook graduated in 1972 from Captain Shreve High School in Shreveport and attended Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

[citation needed] In 1997, Cook started producing the Cook Partisan Voting Index, a scoring metric of partisan lean in Congressional districts and states, which is still published biannually today and is frequently referenced in political commentary.

[5] The award is given annually to honor a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics and carries a prize of $750.