Research

Peer-Reviewed Publications

This paper considers whether the rules governing state political parties help to explain primary election outcomes. I theorize political parties will see lower levels of competition during primary elections when they have bylaws that centralize power within the state central committee. To test this expectation, I created a dataset of state-level party rules by collecting and coding provisions within the bylaws of all 100 state-level Republican and Democratic parties. I operationalize party centralization of power as whether or not elected officials are represented within each party’s formal membership, their state central committee, and whether or not each party has an endorsement or neutrality policy when it comes to contested primaries. I find the centralization of party power does correlate with lower levels of competition in primary elections for the House of Representatives in 2018 and 2020. Specifically, parties are more likely to see uncontested primaries when they guarantee ex-officio state committee membership to their co-partisan elected officials and are more likely to see fewer candidates in general when they guarantee ex-officio state committee membership to their co-partisan elected officials and when they do not have rules that require the state central committee to remain neutral during contested primary elections. While evaluating the causes of this trend is beyond the scope of this paper, these findings appear to be driven by Republican primaries.

Conventional wisdom has long assumed veteran status to be a beneficial credential for political candidates, but the evidence is mixed on the direct association between military experience and electoral success. Rather than a uniformly advantageous candidate characteristic, we argue veteran status is best understood as an influential source cue and issue ownership factor that can be capitalized on by effective campaign messaging. We outline three potential mechanisms through which veteran candidates unlock electoral gains – solidified issue ownership, enhanced trait ownership, and increased salience of advantageous policy issues. We test these expectations with two online survey experiments, randomizing a fictional candidate’s veteran status and the policy topic discussed in campaign messaging. We find veteran candidates can use a combination of veteran cues and policy messaging to gain an advantage over nonveterans. However, veteran candidates stand to benefit most by talking about crime rather than national defense, as a ceiling effect limits veterans’ ability to enhance their service-related issue and trait ownership ratings by messaging on national defense. By reconceptualizing military service as an effective communication tool rather than a uniformly advantageous biographical line, we clarify the substantial electoral value of veteran status in American politics. More broadly, our findings show that voters respond not just to individual cues derived from partisanship or a candidate’s background, but to the interaction of these cues with campaign messaging.

Using an original dataset of state executive leaders from 2001-2017, we explore how gender stereotypes interact with position selection method and voter preferences to influence the representation of women in state executive leadership. We find women are more likely to serve in positions that manage policies stereotyped as feminine and that the impact of selection method varies across gender categorizations. Using a survey experiment on citizen preferences, we validate this classification of stereotypical feminine and masculine executive positions and find respondents view stereotypical masculine traits as more important, but that feminine traits are rated as more important for feminine positions. Furthermore, in evaluating candidates, we find women are not disadvantaged in running for masculine positions, and in some cases, are advantaged in running for feminine positions.

Using a new data set of state political party bylaws and demographics of state party chairs, I evaluate whether women were more likely to run for Congress during the 2018 midterm elections from parties with higher levels of gender diversity. I construct three measures of gender diversity, whether each party was chaired by a woman, granted committee membership to an allied women’s group, and required gender parity among their committee members. Democratic parties are more likely to be chaired by a woman and to require gender parity among their members, but Republican parties are more likely to grant membership to allied women’s groups. Considering the implications of these rules, I find Democratic women were more likely to run for Congress representing parties that grant membership to an allied women’s group and parties chaired by a woman.

Using an original dataset of state executive leaders from 2001 to 2017 from all 50 states we explore the role that position selection method plays in promoting the inclusion of racial and ethnic minorities into positions of power within top leadership positions in state governments. We find racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be appointed than elected to state executive leadership positions a nd that Democratic governors are more likely than Republican governors to appoint minorities to these positions.

See our blog post about this article.

Using an original dataset of more than 3,000 correspondence records from the office of former member of Congress James R. Jones and an e-mail interview with Representative Jones we try to determine who gains access to key staffers in a congressional office during the process of constituent correspondence. We find that key senior staffers are more likely to pay attention to powerful individuals and nonroutine matters.

See our blog post about this article.

I examine the implications of congressional apportionment on quality candidate emergence and electoral competition in elections for the U.S. House of Representatives. I find an inverse relationship between the number of congressional districts in a state and the number of quality candidates running for the House of Representatives.

Using a topic model and archival papers from Senator Robert S. Kerr, we examine the contribution Senator Kerr made in promoting NASA and space exploration while serving as chair of the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Cold War concerns about national security were not all that fueled arguments for pursuing space technology. We find that particularized benefits, state‐level leadership, economic development, and technological advancements were all used to “sell space” during NASA’s infancy.

Book Chapters

In this edited volume chapter, we examine whether voter turnout in congressional primary elections correlates with primary type. We find that closed primaries are associated with lower levels of voter turnout.

  • Anderson, R. Bruce and Zachary Baumann with Matthew J. Geras. 2017. “Florida: The South, Border State, or Wild Frontier?” In New Politics of the Old South: An Introduction to Southern Politics, 6th edition. ed. Charles S. Bullock III and Mark J. Rozell. Rowman & Littlefield.

This book chapter reviews the political history of Florida and examines Florida’s place in the study of southern politics.

Blog Posts & Other Publications

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