About
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Brigham Young University and the Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.
I research how US governments represent their constituents. More specifically, I use quantitative methods to examine factors (like electoral institutions and partisanship) that potentially influence policy outcomes and politicians’ behavior and perceptions of their constituents. Though my work spans all levels of government in the United States, most of it involves municipal politics and politicians (i.e., mayors and city councils). My work has been published in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, and Legislative Studies Quarterly.
I received my Ph.D. from Yale University. Prior to graduate school, I worked in state politics on education policy for 4 years in Utah and attended Brigham Young University as an undergraduate. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Houston, TX.
American Municipal Official Survey
I am the co-principal investigator (along with Daniel Butler) of the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017 American Municipal Officials Survey (AMOS) -- the largest surveys of elected municipal officials conducted by political scientists (N > 4,000) and the first to employ survey experiments to this novel population. We plan to continue conducting the AMOS every two years.
I am a member of The Laboratories of Democracy, a non-profit research organization of political scientists that collaborates with public officials and non-profits on field experimental research. Follow this link if you work in politics and would like to partner with us.
Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy
I am a scholar at The Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy (CSED) at Brigham Young University, a nonpartisan academic research center seeking to increase knowledge about the practice of American democracy. CSED is committed to the production and dissemination of research that meets high academic standards, is useful to policy makers, and informs citizens. We also operate a research lab to help a select group undergraduate BYU students experience the research process.