Books:
In this book, we provide an unprecedented look at local government responsiveness, by combining data from a database with information on more than 260 million American adults with information on the ideologies of local representatives, the outputs of local governments, and the electoral and governing institutions of hundreds of communities throughout the United States. Leveraging these advances in "big data," we examine whether poor and non-white Americans receive unequal representation from local governments, and test whether electoral and governing institutions that facilitate participation and increase descriptive representation of poor and non-white citizens enhance government responsiveness.
2. Ballot Blocked: The Political Erosion of the Voting Rights Act (Stanford University Press, 2017).
In this book, I trace the puzzling evolution - or gradual dismantling - of the Voting Rights Act over the last five decades. I argue the wayward development of the VRA is attributable to the way political and racial conflict has been channeled through the nation's tripartite system of government. Conservative critics of federal voting rights enforcement sought to limit the federal role while simultaneously maintaining a positive reputation on civil rights matters. This led them to adopt a political strategy in which they acquiesced to legislative expansions of the VRA, while at the same time using executive maneuvers and judicial appointments to limit the scope of the Act.
My book uses the theory of institutionally-bounded entrepreneurship to explain the trajectory of federal standards, testing, and accountability policymaking over the past three decades. As the book details, political entrepreneurs, most notably business leaders and civil rights activists, made impressive headway in promoting greater federal involvement in raising standards and holding schools accountable for results. However, federal education reforms were layered atop a highly decentralized education system, resulting in a profound gap between the aspirations of reforms and the performance of the education system.
Articles:
40. Tatishe M. Nteta, Jesse H. Rhodes, Bel Corder, Seth Goldman, Adam Eichen, Sabrina Lapcheske, Efren Perez, Linda Tropp, and Yuen Huo. Forthcoming 2026. I or We? Linked Fate, Self Interest, and African American Opinion Toward Reparations. Political Research Quarterly.
39. Douglas R. Rice, Jesse H. Rhodes, and Tatishe M. Nteta. 2026. Is Justice (Color)blind? The Language of the Law, Racial Bias, and the Impact of Judicial Selection. Political Science Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1093/psquar/qqag002.
38. Jesse H. Rhodes, Tatishe M. Nteta, Seth Goldman, Adam Eichen, Sabrina Lapcheske, Efren Perez, Linda Tropp, and Yuen Huo. 2026. Follow the Fox? Elite Influence and White Support for the Great Replacement Theory. PS: Political Science & Politics. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096525101856
37. Jesse H. Rhodes, Douglas R. Rice, and Tatishe M. Nteta. 2025. Partisan Bias in Juror Decision-Making. Journal of Law and Empirical Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1177/2755323X251366728
36. Jesse H. Rhodes. 2025. Laboratories of Democratic Renewal: Explaining Substantial Improvement in the Quality of Democracy in the American States. Political Science Research & Methods. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-science-research-and-methods/article/laboratories-of-democratic-renewal-explaining-substantial-improvement-in-the-quality-of-democracy-in-the-american-states/53CEF0DA47E8159351D4993D77A51DB7
35. Paul M. Collins, Caitlyn Pierce, Jesse H. Rhodes, and Douglas R. Rice. 2025. Understanding Rights Claiming in LGBTQ+ Media. Politics, Groups, and Identities. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21565503.2025.2547657
34. Sara M. Kirshbaum, Sydney Brake, Lane Cuthbert, Adam Eichen, Raymond La Raja, Julia Mohanty, Tatishe Nteta, Jesse Rhodes, Donald Snyder, and Alexander Theodoridis. 2025. The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election: Public Opinion on the Economy and Immigration Helped Return Trump to the White House, but With No Clear Policy Mandate. The Forum. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/for-2025-2012/html
33. Jesse H. Rhodes. 2025. Understanding the Scope and Limits of Racial Sympathy: A Review of Jennifer Chudy’s Some White Folks (University of Chicago Press, 2024). Political Science Quarterly. https://academic.oup.com/psq/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/psquar/qqaf038/8109344. This is an extended (10pp.) review of Chudy’s book.
32. Brian F. Schaffner, Jesse H. Rhodes, and Raymond J. La Raja. 2024. Are Local Policy Attitudes Distinct? Political Science Research and Methods. https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2024.58
31. Jesse H. Rhodes and Adam Eichen. 2024. How Ideological Diversity Moderates Republican Support for Voter Suppression Measures: The Cases of Georgia and Alabama. The Forum. https://doi.org/10.1515/for-2024-2012
18. Jill S. Greenlee, Tatishe M. Nteta, Jesse H. Rhodes, and Elizabeth A. Sharrow. 2018. "Helping to Break the Glass Ceiling? Fathers, Daughters, and Presidential Vote Choice in 2016." Political Behavior 42: 655-695.
Book Chapters:
7. Jesse H. Rhodes and Tatishe M. Nteta. 2025. The New Racial Spillover: Donald Trump, Racial Attitudes, and Public Opinion Toward Accountability for Perpetrators and Planners of the January 6 Capitol Attack. Political Conflict in American Politics, eds. Marylena Mantas and Robert Y. Shapiro. New York: Cengage. Reprint.
6. Brian F. Schaffner, Jesse H. Rhodes, and Raymond J. La Raja. 2023. The Conservative Bias in America’s Local Governments. Current Perspectives on American Politics, eds. Marylena Mantas and Robert Y. Shapiro. New York: Cengage. Reprint.
5. Jesse H. Rhodes. Forthcoming. The Rhetoric and Reality of Compassionate Conservatism in the Presidency of George W. Bush. 41: The Presidency of George W. Bush. Ed. Michael Nelson. University Press of Kansas.
4. Elizabeth Sharrow, Jesse H. Rhodes, Tatishe M. Nteta, and Jill Greenlee. 2020. Fatherhood, First-Daughters, and the First Woman Presidential Candidate. The Hillary Effect: Perspectives on Clinton’s Legacy, eds. Ivy Cargile, Denise Davis, Jennifer Merola, and Rachel VanSickle-Ward. London: Bloomsbury.
3. Jesse H. Rhodes. 2015. "The Politics of Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Reform." In Max Angerholder, James Kitfield, Norman Ornstein, and Stephen Skowronek, eds., The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Modern Presidency. New York: Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.
2. Jesse H. Rhodes. 2014. "What Influence Do the Parties Have in the Presidency and the Bureaucracy?" In Marjorie Hershey, ed. Guide to the U.S. Political Parties. New York: Sage.
1. Sidney M. Milkis and Jesse H. Rhodes. 2010. "The President, Party Politics, and Constitutional Development." In L. Sandy Maisel and Jeffrey M. Berry, eds. The Oxford Handbook of American Political Parties and Interest Groups. Oxford: Oxford University Press.