Did incumbent politicians benefit from the influx of federal spending during the pandemic? We use an IV strategy to show that incumbents performed better in places that received more aid due to their overrepresentation in Congress. @stanveuger.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Ayoung (@achunpolisci.bsky.social) studies how campaign donors shape congressional lawmaking. Her research examines the influence of “seed donors” -- those who back candidates in their first successful primaries -- on lawmakers’ careers and legislative behavior in Congress.

Anthony Dean Norton (@AnthonyDeanNorton) examines the historical evolution of peoples' right to self-determination. His dissertation reveals how the sedimentation of competing understandings of collective self-determination fuels interstate and domestic conflict.

Giovanni Castro Irizarry (@CastroIrizarry) examines how racial self-classifications among Latinos shape their political attitudes and behavior in the U.S. His articles have been published in The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics.

Doeun Kim studies political economy of firms and labor within the realm of international political economy. Her dissertation focuses on the economic and social interactions between foreign companies and locals and their implication on foreign economic policies. doeunkim.org

Frank Wyer studies how governments, civilians, and the international community respond to violent conflict and build peace in fragile states. frankwyer.com

Christopher Palmisano studies how where you live shapes your civic life. His dissertation uses data from nearly 20 million movers to provide causal evidence that moving to a higher-turnout neighborhood increases your probability of voting.

Michael Herndon (@michaelherndon.bsky.social) studies the intersection of election administration, political psychology, and racial politics. His dissertation represents the first attempt to explain why the ballots of non-White voters are rejected at higher rates than White voters.

Graham Straus studies voting behavior, elections, personal economic conditions, and local politics. His dissertation leverages linked salary and turnout records to isolate the effect of individual income on turnout. www.grahamstraus.com

Siyu Liang uses surveys, experiments, and computational text analysis to study political communication and public opinion in China and the U.S. Her dissertation examines how Chinese propaganda and U.S. media framing shape public attitudes in the context of U.S.-China relations. www.siyuliang.com

Hey #PoliSci folks and @apsa.bsky.social attendees! As placement director, I'm excited to let you know about some of our excellent UCLA job candidates on the market this year. Please take a look and share widley. #psjminfo

MIT Political Science is hiring this fall, with junior lines in both American Politics (members.apsanet.org/CAREERS/eJob...) and IR. Please share widely!

Thrilled to share my new publication @epsrjournal.bsky.social!

When we think of lobbying, we often picture big businesses or NGOs. But regional governments lobby, too!

But what makes govts-as-lobbyists successful?

I study intergovt lobbying success based on a multi-year data collection effort

Congrats to the authors @andreucasas.bsky.social, @oms279.bsky.social, @jpayson.bsky.social, @jatucker.bsky.social, Richard Bonneau, & Jonathan Nagler. The paper, which is accepted for publication at @thejop.bsky.social, is available here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

State Politics and Policy Quarterly is celebrating 25 years! Check out the call for proposals for this special issue dedicated to the impact of state politics research in political science and how the field has evolved over the past decades. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Woohoo!!!!

🚨News flash🚨

In a late-breaking development, UCLA political science has successfully cut a deal with Cesar Vargas Nuñez, who will be joining our roster in ‘26.

This guy has it all: sharp intellect, highly productive, and an all around great human being. Big win for our department & university.

The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey has monitored the wellbeing of America’s high school students since 1991.

Since 2015, it’s been a vital source of data on LGBQ youth. In 2023, it provided the first ever nationally representative sample of transgender teens.

As of this morning, it’s gone.

Are Democratic leaders making cities more dangerous than Republicans? Trump + others have repeatedly made claims like this. New paper in Science Advances w/ @chriswarshaw.bsky.social, Dan Jones & Matt Harvey shows that, in short, the answer is no.

I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012.

Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place.

A thread.

To celebrate the publication of our HANDBOOK OF COMPARATIVE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS and our awesome contributors, I’m kicking off a pre-holiday challenge: every day, I’ll share a short intro to one of its chapters.

This is also an opportunity to connect with new colleagues, so please feel free to 📌!

Wrote a thing about mandates and presidential power.
theconversation.com/presidents-o...

For today's #WorkingPaperWednesday (it's a thing, I made it up, please use if useful!), here's my new paper with Rebecca Johnson and @simko.bsky.social: 𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝐿𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑠!
Paper is available here: osf.io/vst9g

Some time ago and spurred on by an email from @mullinmeg.bsky.social, I recreated a bunch of local government maps that the Census Bureau once created but no longer does. They live on my website. I hope they're helpful to someone (I regularly steal them for presentations).