He received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010. His primary research interests are in political methodology and American politics. Within political methodology, he focuses on the analysis of geographically referenced and time-dependent data. In American politics, he studies the quality of representation in the United States, public opinion, elections, and state politics and policy. His research has been published in the Journal of Politics, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, and the Journal of Theoretical Politics.