Usage of Twitter by politicians has become more prevalent in recent years, with a goal of
influencing the electorate and public perception. We collect, explore, and analyze over 12 …

Members of the US Congress have created new, sub-partisan institutions to capture some
influence in an increasingly polarized and competitive two-party system. However, scholars …

Since 2017, Republican lawmakers in a growing number of US states have formed
ideological intraparty organizations, modeled after the US House Freedom Caucus, that …

Since the creation of legislative effectiveness scores (Volden and Wiseman 2014), a
substantial body of literature has emerged seeking to explain the individual, political, and …

Why do Republicans sometimes decline to enact voter suppression measures, even when
contextual conditions (unified control of state government, electoral threats from Democrats …

Campaigns can feature simple electoral posturing or actual commitments of behaviors that
politicians will engage in upon being elected. But can campaigns also offer insights into …

Page 1 Abstract What explains variation in legislative effectiveness where party systems are
fragmented and not policy-oriented? Why and how are some legislators in these contexts able …

In this dissertation, I examine accountability mechanisms in elections and how they affect
legislative behavior. First, I construct a theory of intra-party factions in which legislators in a …