I am a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. I am supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. My research has been published or is forthcoming in the Journal of Politics, Political Behavior, and Legislative Studies Quarterly, among others.

I study American political economy and public policy. My dissertation assesses representation and accountability in local government. Empirically, my project examines the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), a federal program that awards annual grants to over 1,100 cities and counties. I show how governments choose to allocate CDBG funds and the political and societal consequences of those decisions. Related work addresses inequalities in access to municipal goods and services, the effects of changes in state and local tax policies on election outcomes, and the long-term political consequences of social programs and policies.

Other projects explore several predictors of political opinion and behavior in the U.S. and abroad, including:

• candidate characteristics, such as occupation and place of residence
• corruption and scandal
• electoral context and mass communications
• income inequality and poverty