Book Project (stemming from dissertation work)
"The President's First Moves: The Dynamics of Agenda Construction, 1968-2022"
Summary: In this project, I explore the range and consequence of presidential agency. I do so by examining how nine modern presidents determined their domestic legislative agendas at the start of their terms. Existing explanations of how presidents pick their domestic policy priorities center on external constraints. They contend that presidents anticipate which issues the public wants to see elevated, or which they can get through the legislature, and develop their domestic policy docket accordingly. I challenge this thinking and advance a new conception of presidential democracy. I find that presidential agenda construction is a self-assertive process. Presidents maintain and leverage agency to put forward priorities of their choosing. The president feels empowered to take the nation where they want it to go. Given how defenses of presidentialism have rested on the idea of presidential leadership as a democratic, benign force, my findings prompt a reassessment of the reconcilability of democracy and presidentialism in the modern era. Any grant of power to the president must take stock of how they will use it to their own ends – to define, rather than be defined by, their governing context. In support of these claims, I have conducted seven archival research trips, combing through tens of thousands of pages of material. Additionally, I have interviewed ten senior White House officials. My discussion of public opinion brings in statistical analysis, and I rely on political theory to sharpen my argument.
Awards: Dissertation awarded "departmental distinction," Stan I. Bach Fellowship ($50,000), O’Donnell Grant from the Scowcroft Institute at Texas A&M ($2,500)
Book
"Congressional Expectations of Presidential Self-Restraint" with John A. Dearborn (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2025)
Coverage/Op-Eds: Lawfare, Yale ISPS News
Award: 2025 MPSA Patrick J. Fett Award for best paper on the scientific study of Congress and the presidency
Articles (peer- and editor-reviewed)
Working Papers
"The President’s Publics: Societal Constructions and Policy Resonance"
"Prudish Presidents: The Gilded-Age Challenge to the Logic of Power Maximization" (paper drawn from prospective third book project)
In Progress
"Overreach, Not Outreach: Presidential Ambition as an Institutional Motivation"
"The Role of Unilateralism in Advancing Presidential Priorities"