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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

The Health of Democracy Survey tracks support for anti-democratic norms. Since 2022, support for democracy has polarized between the two parties. While support among Democrats has remained stable (even declined slightly), Republicans are increasingly skeptical of liberal democracy. #polisky

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

I lived right on the main street there when I was a political science professor at Grinnell. I taught American politics. I met Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Tulsi Gabbard at the Prairie Canary in 2019.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

However, while MCs mimic both positive and negative emotions of their constituents, we also show that only shared negative emotions appear to pay an electoral dividend for lawmakers.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Interestingly, we also show that the emotional experiences the mass public has toward politics--the experiences that MCs mimic--are based not on what goes on in Congress but on who occupies the White House. In other words, emotions in congressional communication are driven by presidential politics.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

In this paper, we articulate a new theory of representation based on lawmakers matching their constituency's emotional experience. This emotional congruence signals to constituents largely inattentive to public policy that they are part of the same political tribe and worthy of their support.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Exactly! I make the exact same point. The logic of Citizens United is a straightforward application of Buckley. Anger should be directed appropriately.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Has there been any chatter anywhere on this site or elsewhere about how much the topline results in the 2024 ANES are off? It shows Harris winning by 11 points. That seems bad.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

I want to state publicly that toddlers on leashes are hilarious!

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

“Federal job applicants will soon be quizzed on their favorite Trump administration policy as part of the hiring process, according to the Office of Personnel Management’s new ‘merit hiring plan.’” www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

govexec.com

OPM ‘merit’ hiring plan includes bipartisan reforms, politicized new test

The federal government’s HR agency on Thursday instructed agencies to cease collecting data on the demographic makeup of their workforces.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

My 90 min flight from MSP to Chicago turned into me being stuck in the DC airport until tomorrow. Definitely not making the conference

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

My flight to Chicago was just canceled for unknown reasons. I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to make it to #MPSA25

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

He is pretty awesome. I feel lucky to call him mine.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Recent research from Enders and Thornton, which shows that educational polarization is a phenomenon among exclusively White Americans, supports this claim.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

I listened to the podcast this morning. A big part of the discussion about young voters also hinged on the gender gap. Shor’s data showed that among young voters it was real and enormous. The gap for voters under thirty was 23 points, over thirty half that.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

The wonders of partisan evaluations!

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Absolutely, we developed a theory of asymmetrical party politics rooted in the symbolic-operational disconnect in public opinion, which forces the Democrats to build their coalitional politics around a programmatic policy agenda, while Republicans build their using appeals to ideological identity.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Is this data publicly available? I have a couple of students interested in black political behavior.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

I wish the Democrats would realize that Trump's approval rating is as high as it is because of a total lack of unified messaging on their part. The Party needs to engage in a full court press against this administration. People will only believe this is a constitutional crisis if they see RESISTANCE

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Ah, yes. That would be the work around. Thanks!

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

How is this not an obvious violation of the first Amendment’s freedom of association? The federal government cannot dictate who you associate with peacefully.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

This EO dictates what faculty at service academies can and cannot teach in the classroom. This executive order, titled, "Restoring America's Fighting Force" is both unabashedly unconstitutional, running afoul of the First Amendment, and violates accreditation rules. Where's AAUP and the ACLU?!

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

I’ve thought about this paper multiple times over the last six months.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

I don’t have the emotional energy to do this for another four years.

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Reposted by Ryan Dawkins

Miriam Golden @mgoldenprof.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Are you interested in U.S. legislative history? Newly-available complete dataset on all persons serving as legislators in the 50 state houses between 1900 and 2016: dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtm...

dataverse.harvard.edu

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Yep! Send me your email via DM

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Yep! Exactly right. We cite them in our paper.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

I’d love your thoughts on it. We are turning this paper into a book. We’ve written four of six empirical chapters and hope to get under contract this year

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Which would make sense because the party out of the White House always seems like it is operating in a power vacuum. Congressional leadership can sometimes fill that void if strong enough, as was the case under Pelosi or Gingrich, but they often can’t.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

I would simply argue—as we do in our research—that rank-and-file partisans do not view congressional leaders as the head of their partisan groups. People view parties as presidency focused.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

They do not. We have debated it with them. They view ideology as rooted in core values, while we argue that conservatism is rooted in identity. That is why we flip this core argument on its head in our Perspectives on Politics article.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Yep. We are writing a whole book on this. :)

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

It speaks to the asymmetry in the party coalitions. Democrats have a programmatic agenda built around equal rights protection and Democrats see Biden’s move as a cop out, while Republicans place a high premium on identity and in-group loyalty, so they fall in line around their party leader.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Or as Cayton and Dawkins argue, Democrats = programmatic policy agenda and Republicans = identity.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

May I be added to the starter pack, please?

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Ah, yes! I am familiar with the term in that context. I thought the reference was related to presidential politics in a way I was unfamiliar.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

I'm not familiar with that term. Say more, please!

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Trump's approval rating in his first term hovered in the high 30s to low 40s during his entire term. He never saw an approval rating above 50%. Today, support for his presidential transition is around 60%. This is what Skowronek's "politics of reconstruction" looks like.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Is it just me or does Matt Gaetz looks like he could play the villain in a straight to video sequel of 101 Dalmatians

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 02/09/2024

I show my students Golden Balls! The guy who changed the payouts of the game by saying he would steal was epic! Creates ton of good fodder for understanding how institutional rules change behavior.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 19/08/2024

I wanna assign a chapter or two for my urban politics class in the spring.

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 19/08/2024

I had the book on pre-order from Chicago University Press. It was on my door step when I got back to Northfield last week, and I read it same day. 😊

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 19/08/2024

I read this book last week. It’s great!

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Ryan Dawkins @ryan-dawkins.bsky.social · 12/06/2024

I am teaching campaigns & elections for the first time since 2016. What are some great readings I can assign to undergrads? Shameless self-promotion is strongly encouraged. #polisky

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