Mike Cowburn
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mikecowburn.bsky.social
Mike Cowburn
@mikecowburn.bsky.social
13K followers 2.9K following 290 posts
Research Fellow, @demolaw.bsky.social, Zeppelin Universität

Intra-Party Politics | Candidate Selection | Legislative Politics | PolComm | Primaries

Author: Party Transformation in Congressional Primaries https://tinyurl.com/4w6tfvjx

www.mikecowburn.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
mikecowburn.bsky.social
After a great evening at the first @wzb.bsky.social conference on the future of democracy I’m looking forward to the first full day first tomorrow. I’m presenting work (w/ @curdknupfer.bsky.social & @yunkangyang.bsky.social) at 9:30am in B001

mikecowburn.com/wp-content/u...
Title page for the paper “The Logic of Connective Faction” By Curd Knüpfer, Yunkang Yang, and Mike Cowburn
October 8, 2025 at 8:25 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
At the inaugural @wzb.bsky.social Future of Democracy conference. Tomorrow I’ll be presenting work with @curdknupfer.bsky.social & @yunkangyang.bsky.social but tonight it’s the opening discussion event with @betoorourke.bsky.social, Anna Lührmann and Anna Sauerbrey
Democracy at Stake: A Conversation Across the Atlantic
October 8, 2025 at 5:00 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Empirically, we show that Democratic women are disadvantaged in competitive districts (likely due to perceptions of “electability”) whereas Republican women less often win safe districts (likely due to views about the role of women in politics/society among primary voters and party elites) #polisky
Plot showing predicted probability of women winning primary elections as Democrats and Republicans across values of district partisanship.
September 18, 2025 at 7:14 AM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Still wrong as of this morning:
August 8, 2025 at 9:27 AM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Intra-party politics night out in Madrid #EPSA2025 #falafel

@blumrm.bsky.social @janaschwenk.bsky.social @malpas.bsky.social @jacobgunderson.bsky.social @mkaltenegger.bsky.social @felixlehmann.bsky.social @fabioangiolillo.bsky.social
Intra-party politics scholars having fun in a bar
June 26, 2025 at 7:34 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Waking up this morning and wondering how primaries became factional contests between ideologically-distinct candidates, and whether these primaries have transformed parties?

Well do I have just the book for you…

tinyurl.com/4w6tfvjx
Flyer for Mike Cowburn’s book “Party Transformation in Congressional Primaries”
June 25, 2025 at 7:48 AM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
On Friday at 17:00 (1A.10) I'll present "The Logic of Connective Faction: How Far-Right Media and Digitally-Networked Elites Radicalize Politics" (co-authored w/@curdknupfer.bsky.social & @yunkangyang.bsky.social) on panel "Politics, Media, and Radicalization" #EPSA2025

Paper: tinyurl.com/38czxhh6
Title and abstract of paper
June 23, 2025 at 12:34 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
On Thursday at 17:00 (-1.A.05) @kaplaner.bsky.social presents "Balancing Versatility and Precision:
A Framework for Capturing Legislative Design Choices in Democratic Systems", the first empirical paper of the @demolaw.bsky.social project. #EPSA2025

DEMOLAW conceptual paper: tinyurl.com/5auvzcbs
Title and abstract
June 23, 2025 at 12:34 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
On Thursday at 11:20 (0A.08) I'll be presenting "Comparing Intra-Party Factional Conflict: An Inductive Approach Using Leadership Contests", co-authored with @blumrm.bsky.social and @malpas.bsky.social in the panel "Intra-Party Conflict in Comparative Perspective" #EPSA2025
tinyurl.com/3acmdudt
Title and abstract of the paper
June 23, 2025 at 12:33 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
🚨Manuscript accepted 🚨
@meredithconroy.bsky.social and I introduce and test a novel theory of asymmetric partisan opportunity for women in primary elections. Forthcoming at @jwpp.bsky.social.

Preprint available at: mikecowburn.com/wp-content/u...
Graph showing the relationship between district partisanship (PVI) on the x-axis and the predicted probability of women winning a primary in each party. Probabilities are calculated using Heckman two-stage estimation models. The graph shows that Democratic women are less likely to win competitive general election districts, whereas Republican women are least likely to win primaries in highly conservative districts.
May 30, 2025 at 11:49 AM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Underpants gnome meme
May 12, 2025 at 5:44 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
At #MPSA25? On Friday at 9:50 I'll be presenting research on comparative party factions with @blumrm.bsky.social and @malpas.bsky.social
Outline of panel session
April 2, 2025 at 6:35 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Elon Musk doing a Nazi salute is NOWHERE on the New York Times website this morning. But we do get a story about Melania Trump's hat, so...
New York Times front page 21st January 2025. No mention of Musk performing a Nazi salute at a Trump celebration rally. Melania Trump hat story bottom left.
January 21, 2025 at 8:31 AM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Doing a cross country trip this morning from Frankfurt (am Main) to Frankfurt (Oder):
Frankfurt am Main train station
January 8, 2025 at 5:59 AM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Inside you there are two wolves:
Two cats that look similar but behaving very differently. The left cat (saffron) is shouting at the camera, the right cat (cornflake) looks unamused
December 17, 2024 at 11:27 AM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Last night I celebrated the launch of my first book “Party Transformation in Congressional Primaries” at the @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social. Thanks to everyone who came. The book is available now from Cambridge University Press. Use the code COWBURN24 to get 20% off
A man (me) standing at a lectern giving a book talk. Behind is a projection of the front cover of the book. Books in the foreground of the image.
November 27, 2024 at 3:29 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Big the Day Today energy
Image from “The Day Today” showing a Chris Morris in front of a nonsense graph with various shapes labeled as drugs man dead children and small joy
November 23, 2024 at 3:57 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
🎉📚 The first physical copies of my book arrived today 📚 🎉

🐈🐈 Cornflake & Saffron are the latest to endorse. 🐈🐈

Popular with political scientists and cats!

The book is out now! 😀
🐈 Buy here: tinyurl.com/2cymhjwc
🐈 Or come to the (Berlin/online) launch party on Tuesday: tinyurl.com/36yb9b52
Cornflake (a cat), my book (not a cat), and Saffron (a cat) My book and Cornflake (Saffron is harder to make sit still)
November 22, 2024 at 1:56 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
Agreed.
Simpson’s meme of Barney constantly being in Moe’s tavern but it’s about Mike Johnson trying to get Matt Gaetz out of Congress.
November 21, 2024 at 6:00 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
I will be hosting a book launch at my alma mater, the John F. Kennedy Institute at the Freie Universität Berlin @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social & online at 18:00 on Tuesday 26th November, supported (🍷🍺🍕🍟) by the Atlantische Akademie @atlantakademie.bsky.social. I’d be thrilled if you could join:
Event details for the book launch event for "Party Transformation in Congressional Primaries"
November 11, 2024 at 1:14 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
🎉📖Book release day 📖🎉

My first book, "Party Transformation in Congressional Primaries: Faction and Ideology in the Twenty-First Century" is published TODAY by Cambridge University Press.

You can buy a copy here: tinyurl.com/4w6tfvjx. Use the code in the flyer below to get 20% off.
20% discount flyer for the book "Party Transformation in Congressional Primaries" by Mike Cowburn
November 11, 2024 at 1:14 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
November 6, 2024 at 12:35 AM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
On in 15 #USelection2024
November 5, 2024 at 11:48 PM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
First results are in:
November 5, 2024 at 5:21 AM
mikecowburn.bsky.social
🥳🎉🚨New Publication🚨🎉🥳

"Preventative Polarization: Republican Senators’ Positional Adaptation in the Tea Party Era" co-authored with Sean Theriault is forthcoming in American Politics Research.

Tldr: R Senators once moderated when seeking reelection but are now more conservative.

shorturl.at/ekB9h
A regression table showing that Republican senators previously moderated when seeking reelection but, since the emergence of the Tea Party, they have become more conservative.
October 10, 2024 at 5:50 AM