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Ben Helms

@benjaminhelms.bsky.social
293 followers 324 following 17 posts

Assistant Professor of International Affairs, Bush School, Texas A&M. Previously: Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. PhD from UVA. benjaminhelms.com

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Ben Helms @benjaminhelms.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Very sad to hear about Dolly Parton today. If you want to see a beautiful Dolly moment, here is a video I often return to: a practice session of The Last Thing on My Mind with Doc Watson, another legend, before Merlefest in 2001. youtu.be/oaK0V5otwE8?...
youtu.be
Doc Watson and Dolly Parton - Merlefest 2001
YouTube video by Bolling Willse Sr
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Center for the Advanced Study of India @casipenn.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Now available in HINDI & BANGLA: "Nativist Backlash and 'Left-Behind' Areas: What India’s Trade Agreements Mean for its Political Economy" by @benjaminhelms.bsky.social (Texas A&M University) HINDI: casi.sas.upenn.edu/hindi/iit/be... BANGLA: casi.sas.upenn.edu/bangla/iit/b...
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Ben Helms @benjaminhelms.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I wrote a short piece for @casipenn.bsky.social exploring the likely domestic political consequences of India's continued integration with the world economy. Based on two articles published @ajpseditor.bsky.social, coauthored with Junghyun Lim.
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Rithika Kumar @rithikakumar.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Wrote a short article for @voxdev.bsky.social using results from my primary data collection. This article is based on a forthcoming @thejop.bsky.social piece where I argue that male migration is an under-examined pathway for female political engagement. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Left Behind or Left Ahead? Implications of Male Migration on Female Political Engagement
How does the temporary absence of men from the household due to migration affect female political engagement? While studies on gender and politics have establis
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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
1/🧵 Judges across ideological lines are ruling against Trump at strikingly similar rates (84% liberal, 86% centrist, 82% conservative). This isn't partisan opposition to Trump—it's the judiciary functioning as intended by cutting across partisan lines to uphold the Constitution.
Title: Both Liberal and Conservative Judges Rule Against Trump
Description: A scatter plot showing the rulings of judges against or in favor of Trump, categorized by ideology using the DIME score. The x-axis represents Judge Ideology (DIME Score), ranging from liberal (-1) to conservative (1), and the y-axis represents the case outcome (against or for Trump).
	•	Blue dots represent liberal judges, purple dots represent moderate judges, and red dots represent conservative judges.
	•	Some judges are labeled, including Rudolph Contreras, Lauren King, John Coughenour, and James Emanuel Boasberg on the liberal to moderate side, and Carl Nichols, Richard J. Leon, and Joseph N. Laplante on the conservative side.
	•	A note mentions that Boasberg, though slightly right-leaning, was initially appointed by George W. Bush.
	•	The visualization suggests that judges from both ideological backgrounds ruled against Trump.
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Cleo O'Brien-Udry @cobrienudry.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
wrote an op-ed in our local paper drawing attention to the effects of USAID cuts on Illinois businesses TL;DR it's bad!! How USAID funding cuts hurt Illinois www.news-gazette.com/opinion/gues...
news-gazette.com
My Turn | How USAID funding cuts hurt Illinois
"The domestic consequences of the USAID shutdown will hurt the entire country directly," writes UI Assistant Professor Cleo O'Brien-Udry. "Illinois will be dramatically impacted due to its large agric...
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Center for Global Development @cgdev.org · 11/02/2025
The White House's press release on widespread USAID fraud shows nothing of the sort, @charlesjkenny.bsky.social writes. He explains in a new blog post:
cgdev.org
The White House Demonstrates USAID’s Efficiency
The White House issued a press release three days ago apparently designed to justify the ongoing stop-work orders at USAID, alongside pulling agency staff out of the field and locking them out of…
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Cleo O'Brien-Udry @cobrienudry.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Interactive map of USAID agriculture cut impacts on farms, ports across the US storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/29fc...
Screenshot of map of farms/ports impacted by USAID shutdown
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David Wessel @davidmwessel.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Andrew Natsios, USAID administrator in the George W. Bush administration, has a few things to say about the Trump/Musk/Rubio assault on the agency. Worth watching. No pulling punches. via PBSNewsHour www.youtube.com/live/ZI6XIKx...
youtube.com
PBS News Hour live episode, Feb. 5, 2025
YouTube video by PBS NewsHour
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Ben Helms @benjaminhelms.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Right on the money, from my esteemed colleague. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
politico.com
‘What Elon Musk Said Is a Bold-Faced Lie’
A former Republican director of USAID says the agency is critical to U.S. interests and can’t be abolished or folded into the State Department.
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Ben Helms @benjaminhelms.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Interesting to not see Texas among the GOP states initially supporting Trump’s birthright citizenship EO irp.cdn-website.com/6a12d959/fil...
irp.cdn-website.com
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David Leblang @dleblang.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
@benjaminhelms.bsky.social and I published a paper in 2022 showing that TPS, because it increases remittances, actually decreases subsequent unauthorized migration. academic.oup.com/isq/article-...
academic.oup.com
Labor Market Policy as Immigration Control: The Case of Temporary Protected Status
Abstract. Controlling immigration has become a central political goal in advanced democracies. Politicians across the world have experimented with a range
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Will Masters @willmasters.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Quick effort by a group of USAID supporters to mobilize against the shutdown and takeover -- includes a rally in DC on Wednesday. Website here:
usaidstopwork.com
How You Can Help — USAIDStopWork
Take action—because when aid stops, everyone suffers. Sign the petition. Contact your representatives. Spread the news. .
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Congressman Don Beyer @beyer.house.gov · 03/02/2025
Our congressional delegation pursuing oversight on reports of Elon Musk’s illegal activity at USAID was just barred from entering the building on the orders of Musk and the Trump Administration. Nobody elected Musk — this is illegal and corrupt and we will keep fighting it.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
FYI
MEDIA ADVISORY: Congressional Delegation To Host Press Availability Today At USAID Headquarters Amid Illegal Shut Down Of Agency

February 3, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) – Reps. Don Beyer (D-VA), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Rep. Johnny Olszewsi (D-MD) will hold a press availability to discuss the far-reaching consequences of the Trump Administration and Elon Musk’s illegal shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on national security, the economy, and public health.
 
DATE: Monday, February 3, 2025 at 1:00 PM
WHO: Rep. Don Beyer
Sen. Chris Van Hollen
Rep. Gerry Connolly                                    
Rep. Jamie Raskin
Rep. Johnny Olszewski

Additional Speakers Possible
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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
Can the president dissolve USAID without an act of Congress? No. www.justsecurity.org/107267/can-p...
justsecurity.org
Can the President Dissolve USAID by Executive Order?
Congress established USAID in statute, and the president may not unilaterally override a statute by executive order.
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Rick Morgan @rickmorgan.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Flyer for a rally. Restore Foreign Aid Now: keep America SAFE, STRONG, and PROSPEROUS. To be held at Upper Senate Park (Constitution and Delaware Avenues NE) Wednesday February 5, 2025 at 1130 AM. 

Join retired and former USAID and State Department staff, development and humanitarian assistance implementers, and other supporters of U.S. Foreign Affairs. 

Congress must act now to protect USAID and U.S. foreign aid, vital to our security, economy, and global leadership -- oppose defunding and ensure bipartisan support
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Alexander Kustov @akoustov.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
🚨Why do people turn out less in some places than others, even in compulsory voting systems?🚨 In our new paper, forthcoming at BJPS, we highlight the role of migratory turnover in increasing voting costs for communities and test it using new municipal panel data from Brazil.
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Alexander Kustov @akoustov.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
OK, here is my pre-registered take: Trump will make American immigration attitudes great again, again. goodauthority.org/news/trump-2...
goodauthority.org
Trump immigration policies could shift public opinion yet again.
Mass deportations and tougher Trump immigration rules could backfire, and actually boost U.S. support for immigration.
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Ben Helms @benjaminhelms.bsky.social · 16/10/2024
A 75-degree day in Houston - who knew it could happen?
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Ben Helms @benjaminhelms.bsky.social · 26/02/2024
Spot my newest office decoration.
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Ben Helms @benjaminhelms.bsky.social · 03/02/2024
Excited to share that my article "War on Aisle 5: Casualties, National Identity, and Consumer Behavior", coauthored with Sonal Pandya and Rajkumar Venkatesan, has been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution! Take a look here: doi.org/10.1177/0022...
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Ben Helms @benjaminhelms.bsky.social · 05/10/2023
"By extending temporary protection to certain people who are already here and giving them the opportunity to work, TPS is a smart and humane way to improve the lives of people living here and abroad." Check out my piece on TPS with David Leblang and Tom Jawetz with CNN www.cnn.com/2023/10/05/o...
cnn.com
Opinion: A smart and humane answer on immigration | CNN
The Biden administration’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program is a humane policy that will improve the lives of people living here and abroad, write authors Ben Helms, David Leblang and Tom Ja...
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Ben Helms @benjaminhelms.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
The Biden administration has extended TPS to more Venezuelans, offering them legal labor market access in the US. In research with David Leblang, we find that TPS helps migrants send remittances home, and if anything, reduces subsequent migration. www.nytimes.com/2023/09/20/n...
nytimes.com
U.S. Will Allow Nearly 500,000 Venezuelan Migrants to Work Legally
The move, announced late Wednesday, followed intense lobbying by New York Democrats before and during President Biden’s visit to New York City this week.
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