Megan Goldberg

Call for Proposals! APSA R&P is accepting proposals for small grant awards of up to $2,500 for research on R&P. Proposals may address any topic of theoretical, empirical, and practical significance for the study of religion and politics. Apply here: bit.ly/4gRt4py

ICE detains Des Moines Superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts Iowa's largest school district had "no confirmed information" on why ICE detained Dr. Ian Roberts, the superintendent since 2023.

Breaking news from Des Moines: ICE has detained Dr. Ian Roberts, the superintendent of Iowa's largest school district.
The Des Moines Public Schools said "We have no confirmed information as to why Dr. Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps."
www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/09/26/i...

That's so cute, Amy Coney Barrett thinks there is an immutable "the law" that her and her merry band of conservative cranks strive to divine the true meaning of in conference.

If she believes that, I have a bridge to sell her.

Ah, yes, how shocking that a position we ELECT in state wide partisan race is political. How dare a public official in politics do some politics!

The red state showdown I’ve been waiting for: corn vs. MAHA

Happy Constitution Day

If you take what a 9-0 Court said in Vullo seriously, it seems clear to me that Kimmel has not just a plausible jawboning claim but a strong one on the basis of Carr's threats.

(Always read Genevieve Lakier 👇)

He came to my class as a guest speaker a couple years ago! Let me tell ya, I’ve never seen college students so jazzed about a county supervisor but it was an A++++ convo

Please Don’t Judge Me for Blasting the KPop Demon Hunters Soundtrack in My Car Ashley, can we talk about our driveway encounter the other day? I realize we don’t know each other very well, but let me just come right out and sa...

"You know, after laying all of this out, I’m not sure why I was so embarrassed. In the words of Tumi, the film’s protagonist, 'I’m done hiding, now I’m shining, like I’m born to be.' This is who I am, so I hope you can do me the courtesy of withholding your judgment."

If you need another one, JD Scholten’s 2020 launch video is great - very Field of Dreams and narrated by Kevin Costner. I’ve never had a class collectively guess the party of that ad correctly!

“a little fight with the wife”

I know we already know this is who he is, but somehow I’m still shaking with fury.

Her experience online AND that she’s been putting her time in with the county party, knocking doors and having conversations with her neighbors because she cared - that’s a great training ground for running

I have lots of thoughts on Drey’s win in Iowa, but my most important thought is that she has the one-two punch of being great online and great in person. She’s a person who can talk to people.

I have been thinking about this a lot with respect to Catelin Drey in Iowa - especially since she cultivated some spaces online to be politically active as women, as moms and how that’s helpful training ground

The schedule at my institution lets us teach one course at a time (3-3 load though) and while there are challenges, not hopping between different courses is VERY underrated - I teach four hours a day often, but it’s the same class!

When it comes to my kids’ musical instruments, I am the textbook example of elite cue taking because there are infinity dimensions and options

Expected this, but not this fast! 2026 is going to be interesting in Iowa.

This was my daughter’s 9th birthday last week!

Even if the Wired piece isn’t all it’s claiming to be, there is still disagreement WITHIN the FEC about content creators living in a disclosure loophole

A very big Instagram creator got on TT to explain how political content creators make money and somehow not one of the possibilities was “paid content with appropriate disclosures”

I need one of these!

National guard troops lounging outside a Krispy Kreme

Dearest Martha,

The National Guard stand solemn watch at the Krispy Kreme tonight. I cannot tell if they defend the people from the donuts, or the donuts from the people. Powdered sugar hangs in the air like cannon smoke. Jensen took a hot coffee to the face, he may never recover.

Yours in glaze,

… quietly deletes draft post 😂 looking forward to listening tomorrow!

I call the days on the early republic in Intro American “the Bouie unit” because we read like three columns back to back but also occasionally link a tiktok video in hopes he will keep landing on their FYP

who runs the democratic party? some people say the base, dem primary voters. some say donors. some say the electeds

the answer is the people who sign up to take online surveys about the persuasiveness of alternative digital campaign ad messaging vignettes via consumer reward programs

Screenshot of a Bluesky thread by Adam Bonica (@adambonica.bsky.social) from five months ago discussing Democratic Party electoral strategy. • Tweet 1: “2/ Individual Dem candidates gain modestly from ideological moderation, but the party-level pattern differs. Dems’ best years (2006, 2008, 2018) came when the party moved left. Their worst performances (2010, 2022) coincided with years the party ran to the center.” (7 comments, 88 reposts, 365 likes) • Tweet 2: “3/ The driving factor? Partisan turnout differentials. When registered Democrat turnout approaches registered Republican levels, Dems perform substantially better. This isn’t about raising overall turnout, but specifically closing the partisan gap between D and R voters showing up at the polls.” (2 comments, 31 reposts, 259 likes) • Tweet 3: “5/ The strategic dilemma: moderation may yield marginal persuasion gains but risks suppressing base enthusiasm and turnout—which our data shows is far more consequential. Successful electoral strategy requires more nuance than simply ‘moving to the center’ at all costs.” (4 comments, 50 reposts, 278 likes) • Tweet 4: “6/ To be clear: our study doesn’t suggest running moderates in specific districts is a poor strategy—that approach can still yield vote-share gains. However, our data strong suggest that as a national party strategy, mobilizing Dem base voters delivers better results than chasing swing voters.” (1 comment, 46 reposts, 270 likes) • Tweet 5: “7/ The conventional wisdom that Democrats must ‘run to the center’ to win elections simply doesn’t hold up empirically. When Democrats have moderated as a party, they’ve consistently performed worse electorally. When they have closed the partisan turnout gap, they’ve consistently performed well.” (7 comments, 99 reposts, 363 likes)

Our argument isn't about running moderates vs. progressives. It's that the strategic imperative for Democrats is mobilizing registered Dems who stay home. Persuasion effects from ideology are marginal; wave elections happen when Dems mobilize. I'm glad Noah Smith outlined our actual argument:

"When an Iowan" – here is our challenge.
bsky.app/profile/jame...

I put this as a true/false question on an exam in my intro American class 😂 (Republicans always support decentralization to states and local governments, Democrats always support centralization of power to federal government)