Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my website! I am the Mary Toepelt Nicolai & George S. Blair Assistant Professor of Politics & Government at Claremont Graduate University and a Faculty Affiliate at the Center of Effective Lawmaking. I also served as a part of the American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship Program 2019-2020 class of Congressional Fellows, placed in the United States Senate. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Davis in June 2019. Prior to arriving at CGU, I served as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at El Paso.

My research agenda focuses broadly on the nature of ideological representation, collective accountability, voter decision rules in legislative elections, and legislative behavior within the United States. The core of this work centers on understanding mass elite-citizen linkages by assessing what drives the political preferences of citizens, and how these preferences inform the representation provided to them by political elites, such as legislators, electoral candidates, parties, and collective institutions. Much of his research takes the form of active collaborations with graduate student colleagues and has been featured in popular media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, The Economist, and others.