Academic research on Christian nationalism has revealed a considerable amount about the scope of its relationships to public policy views in the US. However, work thus far has not addressed an essential question: why now? Our research advances answers, showcasing how deeper engagement with “the 3Ms” – measurement, mechanisms and mobilization – can help unpack how and why Christian nationalism has entered our politics as a partisan project. Indeed, it is difficult to understand the dynamics of Christian nationalism without reference to the parties, as it has been a worldview used to mobilize Republicans while simultaneously recruiting and demobilizing Democrats. The mechanisms of these efforts hinge on a deep desire for social dominance that is ordained by God – an order elites suggest is threatened by Democrats and “the left.” These elite appeals can have sweeping consequences for opinion and action, including the public’s support for democratic processes.

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In Trump, White Evangelical Christians, and American Politics, we bring together a wide range of scholars and writers to examine the relationship between president Donald Trump and white evangelical Christians.  Contributions contextualize the first Trump presidency within religious demographic change, the growth of politicized religion, nationalistic religious expression, and the ways religion in the United States is enmeshed in the politics of race. 

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Political yard signs are one of the most conspicuous features of American political campaigns, yet they have received little attention as a form of political communication or participation. In Politics on Display we answer questions about this familiar feature of electoral politics: Why do people put their preferences out there for the world to see? Do neighborhoods become political battlegrounds? What are the consequences of displaying yard signs in the spaces where we spend most of our time? 

We answer these questions with an innovative research design, documenting political life in neighborhoods with complementary data sources: street-level observation of the placement of signs and neighborhood-specific survey research that delves into the attitudes, behavior, and social networks of residents. Integrating these data  into a geodatabase that also includes demographic and election data—and supplementing these data with nationally-representative studies—we bring together insights from political communication, political psychology, and political geography. Against a backdrop of today’s political environment of conflict and division, we advance a new understanding of how citizens experience campaigns, of why many still insist on airing their views in public, and of what happens when social spaces become political spaces.

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