I am a Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. Previously, I taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. My areas of research are American Politics, Representation, Public Opinion, State and Local Politics, Environmental Politics and Policy, and Statistical Methodology.
One of the most profound questions in the study of democratic governance is whether the government is responsive to the preferences of its citizens and how the influence of the mass public varies across institutional contexts and over time. In my research, I evaluate the links between public opinion, elections, and political outcomes in city and state governments, as well as the U.S. Congress. I also examine how political institutions, such as term limits or direct democracy, influence political representation. In order to do this, I have developed new techniques to accurately measure the policy preferences of the American public at a variety of geographic levels. I have published my work in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Science Advances, the Annual Review of Political Science, Political Analysis, Political Science Research and Methods, Legislative Studies Quarterly, the British Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, Public Choice, the Election Law Journal, Nature Energy, and edited volumes from Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. My research has also been broadly covered in the media, including USA Today, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Economist, and other major outlets. My non-academic writing has also been published in the New York Times and the Washington Post.
In addition to my research on representation and elections, I have written on a wide range of other topics in political science including: survey design, energy policy, judicial politics, and the institutional underpinnings of democratization. I have a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University. During graduate school, I was a research fellow at Stanford's Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD). Prior to graduate school, I worked in politics for two years and as an environmental economics analyst for two years. I received a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Williams College.
I currently live in Bethesda, Maryland with my wife Carolyn, son Eli, daughter Mira, and dog Maya.