Publications

Books

• • Elephant's Edge: The Republicans as a Ruling Party (Praeger, 2005)

  • The Floor in Congressional Life (University of Michigan Press, 2012)

  • Congress: A Performance Appraisal (Westview Press, 2013)

  • The End of Consensus: Diversity, Neighborhoods, and the Politics of Public School Assignments with Toby L. Parcel, (University of North Carolina Press, 2015)

  • A Tolerance for Inequality: American Public Opinion and Economic Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2025)

National Affairs Pieces:  Reforming Appropriations (2019), The Expert in American Life (2022), The Future of Redistricting (2023), The Democrats and Democracy (2024),  The Myth of Democratic Backsliding in the States (2026).

Google Scholar Page: Here

Most Recent Refereed Articles

• • “Unaggrandizing the Partisan Gerrymander.” Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics and Policy, (with Michael Barber and Sean Trende).

  • “A Trump Effect on Immigration Policy Attitudes? Another Look.” Journal of Public Policy, 46 (2026): 102-25. 

  • "Trump and the Art of Presidential Deal Making," Congress and the Presidency, 51 (2 2024): 172-97.

  • “The Individual-Level Origins of Congressional Corruption Scandals,” American Politics Research, 48 (July 2020): 442-54 (with Michael D. Cobb).

  • “Partisan Affiliation in Political Science: Insights from Florida and North Carolina,” PS: Political Science and Politics, 52 (October 2019): 706-10 (with Lonna Rae Atkeson).   

  •  “Legislative Seniority in the Partisan Congress,” Social Science Quarterly, 100 (June 2019): 1297-1307.

  • “The Revolution in Federal Procurement, 1980-Present,” Business and Politics, 21 (March 2019): 27-52.

  • “Proximity and the Principle-Policy Gap in White Racial Attitudes: Insight from Views of Student Assignment Policies in Wake County, North Carolina,” Social Science Research, 79 (February 2019): 95-103 (with Toby L. Parcel).

  • “Which U.S. House Members Present Their Legislative Records? Models of Electoral Accountability and the Content of Press Releases,” Congress and the Presidency, 44 (1, 2017): 102-19.

  •  “An Absence of Malice: The Limited Utility of Campaigning Against Party Corruption,” American Politics Research, 43 (November 2015): 923-51 (with Michael D. Cobb).

  • “Bill Passage Speed in the U.S. House: A Test of a Vote-Buying Model of the Legislative Process,” Journal of Legislative Studies, 3 (September 2014): 285-304.

  • “Paging Congressional Democrats: It Was the Immorality Stupid,” PS: Political Science and Politics, 47 (April 2014): 351-6 (with Michael D. Cobb).

  • “When Congress Asserts Itself: Examining Legislative Challenges to Executive Power,” The Forum, 10:2 (Article 2), July 2012.

  • “Does Presidential Primary and Caucus Order Affect Policy? Evidence from Federal Procurement Spending,” Political Research Quarterly, 63 (June 2010): 398-409.

  • “Strategic Intercameral Behavior and the Sequence of Congressional Lawmaking,” American Politics Research, 36 (May 2008): 451-74.

  • “The Presidential Pork Barrel and the Conditioning Effect of Term,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, 38 (March 2008): 97-110.

  • “Size, Power, and Electoral Systems: Exogenous Determinants of Legislative Procedural Choice,” Legislative Studies Quarterly, 31 (August 2006): 323-45.