About

I am a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Columbia University, a Fellow at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, and a Mellon Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow at Columbia’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy.

My research analyzes democratic representation in the United States from several angles.  My dissertation, Special Interest Partisanship: The Transformation of American Political Parties, employs both qualitative and statistical tools to explain changes in the relationship between political parties and special interest groups since the New Deal.  I also have an ongoing project, co-authored with Jeffrey Lax and Justin Phillips, analyzing public opinion and representation on gay rights issues.  My newest project, co-authored with Kelly Rader, investigates why the states most opposed to federal spending tend to receive disproportionately large amounts of federal money.