According to the Wall Street Journal, Sabato is " probably the most quoted college professor in the land." He is a former Rhodes Scholar and Danforth Fellow. After receiving his B.A. in government from the University of Virginia as a Phi Beta Kappa in 1974, Sabato did a year's graduate study in public policy at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Upon receipt of the Rhodes scholarship in 1975, he left Princeton to begin study at Queen's College, Oxford University. In less than two years he received his doctorate in politics from Oxford, and was invited to become a tutor for students in the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) program. In January 1978 he was elected Lecturer in Politics at New College, Oxford and joined the faculty at the University of Virginia in September 1978.

Sabato has been a prolific author over the past two decades. His latest book is a collaborate effort with Mark Stencel, politics editor for washingtonpost.com, and S. Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., and editor of the online magazine Newswatch. Entitled Peepshow: Media and Politics in an Age of Scandal, the book looks behind the scenes at news coverage of political scandals analyzing what gets reported, what doesn't, and why.

Other books by Sabato include Dirty Little Secrets: The Resurgence of Corruption in American Politics; Feeding Frenzy: How Attack Journalism Has Transformed American Politics; PAC Power: Inside the World of Political Action Committees; The Party¹s Just Begun: Shaping Political Parties for America's Future; Paying for Elections; and several others.