Current Focus

My current research investigates the dynamics of American elections at various levels of office, examining how campaign messaging evolves through successive electoral cycles. Notably, I investigate the impact that prior experience in different offices has on candidates' effectiveness and appeal when seeking higher positions. The goal of this work is to highlight the strategic adaptations of campaign rhetoric and the broader implications of political trajectories in shaping electoral outcomes. Moreover, I aim to uncover patterns that reflect changing voter perceptions and highlight the underlying mechanisms driving political ambition and careerism.

Methodologically, I am interested in content analysis and text-as-data, with the aim of quantifying speeches and other written materials for use as datasets in research related to campaign messaging and how it changes over time.

Undergraduate Thesis: Examining Narratives in American Elections through the Lens of the Gun Control Debate

Supervised by Dr. Brad Epperly (UBCO)

Abstract:

The myth of the rational voter is being replaced with a more accurate characterization of low political participation and group identities that are susceptible to variations in how information is framed. While research has been done regarding frames of good characters versus bad characters, little work has been done on the added dimension of relative power. I provide that the framing of the dimension of power has significant impact on how voters respond to an issue using an original survey experiment comparing how voters respond to messages framed with strong and weak power dimensions. Results show that highly partisan voters respond more strongly to messages where they are shown to have a relatively weak position compared to messages where they are shown to have a relatively strong position. This research builds on an existing framework of good versus evil character depiction and offers experimental data in support of an expanded framework including dimensions of power.

Research Assistant, University of British Columbia

Responsibilities:

- Reviewed survey instrument drafts

- Wrote documentation for ethics board approval

- Wrote survey instrument for replication study in American context

- Coded regressions in Stata