I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Marquette University and the co-editor of Publius: The Journal of Federalism.
My research examines the intersection between federalism, the policymaking process, and the political economy of policy knowledge. I’m the co-author of Obamacare Wars: Federalism, State Politics, and the Affordable Care Act, now available in paperback, with a new preface, from the University Press of Kansas. I’m also the co-editor of American Political Development and the Trump Presidency, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2020.
My forthcoming book, Counting Like a State (University Press of Kansas, 2025), examines how conflict and cooperation between federal, state, and local governments shapes the implementation of the United States census. An article based on this book project was recently published in Political Science Quarterly. You can read it here.
A second book project, Madison’s Engineers: How Policy Science Remade Federalism (under contract, Columbia University Press), analyzes how policy experts reshaped the relationship between the federal government and the states during the latter half of the twentieth century.
In collaboration with Amanda Kass, I’m also working on a multi-year project focused on how U.S. cities are using their American Rescue Plan Act funds to support novel community violence interventions. This research is sponsored by the Joyce Foundation. A project website can be found here.
You can read more about my research and teaching on my Marquette page. A .pdf of my current CV can also be found here.
Selected Recent Publications
Journal Articles
Book Chapters
Popular Writing
“Prisoners of Their Own Device,” The American Prospect, April 2023.
Nine-part series on the passage of Act 12, the overhaul of Wisconsin’s state-local revenue sharing system in The Recombobulation Area.