Dan Bowen

How do you nominate? Just send an email or DM with the paper attached and tell us that you're submitting. If you want, you can also say what you think is good/innovative/important/useful about the paper, but even that isn't necessary.

You of course could nominate other good papers you saw at conferences in 2025. Perhaps you know of a graduate student at your university who is doing great work on the U.S. states - please nominate them!

I'm on the committee ( with @meghanleonard.bsky.social and Justin Crofoot) to give both awards - you can email me or DM for info.

Deadline is this Monday, Feb 16th!

Did you present a paper at an academic conference during 2025 on state politics or policy? Consider nominating it for a best paper award! The State Politics and Policy Section of APSA has 2 separate awards; one for papers written by and/or with faculty and one just for graduate students.

Every time I use it, I'm impressed. Great pen.

The Zebra Sarasa has no business being as good as it is.

What an amazing thing to be said about you:

"He was many things, but the attribute that appears so often is: He was kind. In a world where you can choose to be so many things, he chose to be kind."

‘One officer told me that I "had no chance of returning to Minnesota" and that "the best thing for (me] is self-deportation." …
She offered me $2600 to self-deport.
I refused.
I wanted to talk to my attorney.
They didn't tell me the judge had already ordered my release and return to Minnesota.’

Have you wondered why exactly it is that single-family zoning leads to racial segregation? I wrote this little article to figure it out. I use an agent based model to show it is a combination of race-based wealth inequality, homophily, & clustering of housing types in zoning maps.

the “talking filibuster” From a I did today. Several House Rs are pushing for Majority Leader Thune to force a “talking filibuster” in the Senate to try to overcome a filibuster ...

On the “talking filibuster.”

blog.mattglassman.net/the-talking-...

This didn't pass my gut check of something that is _actually_ happening _now_ and guess what:

>In its proposal for the grant, Alabama said it hoped to provide “telerobotic ultrasound systems” as part of its maternal and fetal health initiative.

www.al.com/news/2026/01...

It is a classic strategy used regularly to reject moral teachings they do not want to follow.

This reasoning is deeply embedded into conservative evangelicalism. Moral teachings of Jesus and the NT writers? Clearly those are written to individuals and churches, not governments, so not applicable. Prophetic writings from Hebrew Scriptures? Written uniquely to Israel, so not applicable to us.

American Journal of Political Science | MPSA Journal | Wiley Online Library When elected officials gain power, do they use it to provide more constituent service or affect policy? The answer informs debates over how legislator capacity, term limits, and institutional positio....

Thrilled to share that my paper with @judgelord.bsky.social and Justin Grimmer:"How shifting priorities and capacity affect policy work and constituency service: Evidence from a census of legislator requests to U.S. federal agencies" is out at the AJPS!

People hate societal disruption and there is no way to deport a lot of people without ripping apart society at the seams. It is really that simple. Immigration is an abstract idea for most people until the reality is laid bare. Thermostatic public opinion is thermostatic for a reason.

A community organizer’s guide to Signal group chats Key privacy settings and best practices.

A community organizer’s guide to Signal group chats www.theverge.com/tech/872493/...

1. Trump certainly wants to fully rig elections.
2. He has no actual plausible plan to do so.
3. We should absolutely take the threat very seriously and actively do what's possible to protect elections and democracy.
4. What's actually likely is success or failure at the margins; every bit counts.

We don't have to believe this will work in order to take it seriously. But "the states control elections & he doesn't have enough goons to make it happen & the Constitution says ______" isn't a plan. 1/6/21 & getting away with it to become POTUS again also were illegal.

bsky.app/profile/mcop...

Frederick Douglass quote from 1857: Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power conceded nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.

Anyway, good morning from this evergreen quote from a guy we teach the kids is a great American hero

Appellate court upholds dismissal of indictment against George Norcross The case was argued last November, months after the trial court dismissed the charges.

BREAKING: Dismissal of indictment against George E. Norcross III has been upheld by the appelate division. whyy.org/articles/geo... @whyynews.bsky.social #NewJersey

"WATCH: jesus christ FIGHTS with money-changers during TEMPLE SERVICE"

This... is not the role of ODNI. This is so fucked up in all sorts of ways that will have lasting implications.

I recognize it's not going to happen, but this is something that Congress should freak the fuck out about.

What's morale like at CBP & ICE right now? New survey data are damning.
*21% of CBP respondents (9% of ICE respondents) believe their agencies' political leaders maintain high standards of integrity.
*Only 23% at CBP (18% at ICE) feel confident they could report illegal acts without retribution

Anyone have insight on non-response trends vis-a-vis trends in Trump approval, recent immigration opinions shifts, etc?

Princeton Gerrymandering Project leader plans to run for Congress - New Jersey Globe The man who helped draw New Jersey’s congressional map in 2021 is now running for one of the seats he created. Sam Wang, a Princeton neuroscience

newjerseyglobe.com/congress/pri...

MAGA has been trying to meme its way to consolidated authoritarianism, relying on images, bluster, and voluntary compliance to make up for the Trump regime’s insufficient capacity.

They’re not done, things will probably get worse, but one of MAGA’s main tools just faltered. Yeah, that matters.

Inside the effort to organize clergy nationwide to resist ICE (RNS)— Hundreds of clergy from around the country gathered in Minneapolis to learn from Minnesota faith leaders how to protest against ICE enforcement. Then they took to the streets and helped block t...

NEW: I was one of 3 reporters granted access to the convening of 600+ clergy in Minneapolis this week.

It was a striking show of solidarity with MN clergy resisting ICE, but heralded something else: the emergence of a vast, faith-based network trained to resist ICE. religionnews.com/2026/01/23/i...

National media should really be covering the fact thay every major school, museum, and arts institution in the Twin Cities, and hundreds of local businesses are closed tomorrow to protest federal occupation.

Nothing like this at this scale has happened anywhere in America anytime in living memory.

A very detailed map of Trump's job approval Explore our new interactive map of Trump's job approval, powered by 12,000 survey interviews conducted in 2025 and 2026

Today I am publishing what I believe to be the most detailed available map of Trump's job approval rating. Powered by over 12,000 interviews for our Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll. I hope this generates many stories, and hours wasted exploring data!

www.gelliottmorris.com/p/a-very-det...

Trump’s Year of Anarchy The unconstrained presidency and the end of American primacy.

One year in, it's Hobbes all the way down. Me & @dandrezner.bsky.social in @foreignaffairs.com.

www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...