[2] Pomper was born in the Bronx in 1935 to Jewish immigrants from Poland.
[3] He grew up in Manhattan and graduated from Stuyvesant High School.
[3] He began his academic career at the City College of New York, before moving to Rutgers University and served as the founding chair of the political science department of Livingston College.
[3] He was a Fulbright scholar in 1971–72, teaching at Tel Aviv University.
[6] Pomper has been described as a leading authority in the field of election studies and was called the "Dean of American Political Science" by political historian Allan Lichtman.