Dear ANES community, the link below introduces our new Board of Advisors, led by Jamie Druckman. Jamie follows John Aldrich, who deftly chaired the Board for nearly 2 decades. This new group will guide us through the 2028 election cycle. Our deepest thanks to outgoing and incoming Board members!

I didn't watch a moment of the State of the Union. Someone please tell me: is my understanding of public affairs impoverished?

I just hope both teams have fun.

Really surprised and disappointed at how few of my students showed up for my optional Zoom makeup class that happened today, a well-being day. It could have been a three part crescendo from UNC / Duke game Superbowl Logarithmic models with Professor Ryan

Today seems like a nice day to re-up @leahchristiani.bsky.social 's excellent research on when white people approve of blatantly racist political messages. Not sure what made me think of it today, but anyway. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The Donut Rule for inclement weather school closures: If the donut store nearest to the school is open, then the school should be open. (Public schools in my area are closed for the third day running.)

For protecting [armed troops], by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States. www.archives.gov/founding-doc...

Near as I can tell, an ICE agent pulled the trigger for 2/3 of the deaths by gunfire in Minneapolis so far in 2026.

If the United States invades Greenland, would this be ethically better, worse, or the same as Russia invading the Ukraine? Why?

Can we please make it a rule, enforced at the submission stage, that if your experiment is pre-registered, you must include a link to the pre-registration or include the pre-registration in your appendix? Amazing to me how many manuscripts I review assert pre-registration, but don't show it to me.

Time for student subject pools to make a comeback! 🚀

Not great, Bob.

Careful, folks. ChatGPT appears to be daydreaming today.

And the award for journalistic understatement of the year goes to…

Something that the Santos commutation crystallizes for me is that Trump does not only *tolerate* corruption, such as when it serves his interests. (This would be bad enough.) He proactively rewards it, even when unrelated to his interests. (See also Eric Adams--a Democrat!)

At Harvard, students can register for two classes that meet at the *same time* because classes are Important and we’re Very Serious about education. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

AI tools helped me finish a replica of the regimental flag that my 3x great grandfather fought (and died) under during the Civil War. It's based on a photo of the deteriorated flag that I got from the New Jersey State Museum. I like how it came out! And what it symbolizes.

Today's cute teaching example of the kind of policy that a federal bureaucrat would need to make: when a blind person hires someone to groom their seeing eye dog, is this a tax deductible medical expense? See below for the answer.

Nice mention of my Free Expression work, three paragraphs from the bottom.

Apropos of nothing, here is a montage from the great 2008 series Generation Kill where John Sixta--the battalion yutz--bangs on and on about adherence to the "grooming standard." (NSFW) www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQr9...

You want my letter of recommendation to be answers to six questions that you came up with, and that are specific to your organization. I want to write one general purpose letter that covers all the same substance and that I can upload to *any* organization. We are not the same.

UNC Political Science is hiring in methods! UNC has an amazing department and the triangle is a great place to live. Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Methods (Deadline Oct 24) link to the posting👇 unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307... #polisky #psjobs #poliscijobs

UNC is hiring in Political Methodology. Please spread the word and encourage people to apply. unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

Happening at UNC.

I'll credit Thomas as a committed originalist when he points to the clause in the Constitution that grants the president near-blanket immunity from criminal prosecution.

Of all the times in history that someone was handed $50,000 cash in a takeout bag, what percentage of them do you suppose were completely legitimate and above-the-board?

Political violence is bad. That’s it. That’s the tweet. (Skeet.)

The surprising thing? It turns out that couples that last always select on the dependent variable.

Declaration of Independence: 1,320 words. University-required statements on UNC course syllabi: 2,402 words. curricula.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

Neither here nor there, but I'm reading a bunch of open-ended survey responses about nuclear power and boy do a lot of people think that nuclear power produces air pollution. The stuff coming out of the big cooling towers is just steam!

Any suggested undergraduate readings providing an overview of Supreme Court processes--cert, criteria to hear a case, role of oral args, conferences, and written opinions--and maybe the shadow docket? I used to assign Gideon's Trumpet and it's just too dated. My intro class doesn't use a textbook.

What percentage do you tip, for a pure takeout order from a restaurant?

Neat image from Gemini, when I asked it to generate an image for my Intro American course landing page--one that was sober, reflective, analytical, and philosophical. And having some Americana--but without being heavy-handed (with soaring eagles and so forth). (GPT did not deliver as well.)

Worth re-upping today. You can always count on the so-called "deficit hawks" to cave like a spelunker who has fresh lamp batteries and something to prove.

A lot of times, I can squint as a SCOTUS opinion I don't like, and see it through the other side's eyes. I've read and thought a lot about jurisprudence. It's hard, and a reasonable mind can walk itself to some pretty surprising places. Nevertheless, I feel the following quite strongly: If the

🚨 NEW RESEARCH ALERT 🚨 My latest article is now available at @polbehavior.bsky.social! "Cueing Without Parties: Experimental Evidence from Peru" explores how citizens navigate politics in contexts without stable parties and deeply-rooted partisan predispositions. 📖 doi.org/10.1007/s111...

Would anybody like to be president of the University of Florida? The face-eating Board of Governors will definitely not eat *your* face! www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/u...

Spend ten minutes on Harriet Tubman’s Wikipedia page and you will learn that she had enough “warrior ethos” to hang with Marines who eat nails for breakfast and steel wool for lunch.

I have a theory that, in 2003, Harvard rejected Stephen Miller's college application.

UNC’s BOT didn’t approve any tenure cases outside of health & sciences. options for new faculty? join w/o tenure or delay joining a year. For current faculty? remain in current position, so no tenure. BOT has not said a single thing to explain their nonaction www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

On Friday, UNC faculty learned--via an email from the chair of the faculty, not from the admin--that the Board of Trustees declined to do their pro forma approval of this year's tenure conferrals (the entire slate, health sciences excepted). We are still waiting for an explanation.

I want one, and I don’t want the US government undermining the development, distribution, and accessibility of COVID boosters.

If you count on the “deficit hawks” to disappoint you, you will never be disappointed.

If you count on the Freedom Caucus to disappoint you, you will never be disappointed.

I think this article, plus one from a few days ago about students catching professors using AI, hammer home that incorporation, not enforcement, is the right long-run approach teaching in the world of AI. (For most cases.) Hastily-written thread to follow.

Thrilled to share my article “The Right Kind of (Gay) Man?” was accepted @thejop.bsky.social I started it as a 1st-year grad student, it became my MA, then a dissertation & job market paper. It’s the piece I’m most proud of (and relieved to finally share) 🏳️‍🌈 www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Trump v. CASA: Focusing on nat'l injunctions was the best possible grounds for the Admin to advance its birthright citizenship agenda. And, focusing on birthright citizenship was the worst possible ground for it to advance its nat'l injunction agenda. Understandable, but very risky legal strategy.

30 out of 31 students attended my last day of class, which had 15 minutes where all you were supposed to do was fill out your course evaluation. Only 25 students completed the evaluation, for a response rate of 80.6%. What I'm saying is I don't envy the good people of AAPOR! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

An update that makes "include page numbers" the default setting on MS Word. (Yes, it's paper grading season.)