I am a professor at the Department of Politics at Catholic University My research and teaching interests include the U.S. Congress, political leadership, state (legislative) politics, American elections, and American political development.
My most recent book, Newt Gingrich: The Rise and Fall of a Party Entrepreneur with Jeff Crouch, provides an in-depth scholarly analysis of the leadership of former congressman and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. I am also the author of Legislative Hardball (2019), the first book-length examination of the House Freedom Caucus; Choosing the Leader with Douglas Harris (2019), which explains the vote choice of lawmakers in congressional leadership elections; and several other books about American politics.
My articles have appeared in American Politics Research, Electoral Studies, Political Research Quarterly, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and other journals. I am also a contributing writer to Mischiefs of Faction, a blog about political parties, and co-editor of the Congressional Leadership series with the University Press of Kansas.
I recently appeared on NPR's Morning Edition to discuss the threat of a government shutdown and the internal GOP rebellion that would eventually topple Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.
In a January 2023 National Constitution Center podcast, I joined Professor Josh Chafetz of Georgetown University to discuss the history of the office of Speaker of the House.
In a guest op-ed in The Hill, Jeff Crouch and I drew from our new book about Newt Gingrich to discuss Gingrich's contributions to American politics. We also discussed our research on Gingrich at the 2017 Congress and History conference, which subsequently aired on C-SPAN.
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