Since my early teens I have been obsessed with two subjects: sports and politics. I am particularly interested in American elections, getting hooked when Republican George H. W. Bush ran against Democrat Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. Given my background as the son of two New England Yankee parents who was relocated to the southern United States as a young child, I have become an expert on the politics of the American South. Growing up in North Carolina, I witnessed firsthand the transition from a Democratic South to a Republican stronghold. Examining the changing party politics of this region, I have published numerous articles and chapters, a book on southern U.S. House contests, an edited volume on congressional redistricting in Florida, a southern politics textbook, and a coauthored book on the realignment of rural white southerners to the Republican Party (Rural Republican Realignment in the Modern South: The Untold Story).

I routinely teach courses on American Government, Campaigns and Elections, Political Behavior, and Southern Politics. In addition to teaching and research, I enjoy interacting with the media and engaged citizens to discuss the latest happenings in American politics, especially when an election season is underway. I am an unabashed political junkie, consuming gobs of political news while constantly writing about politics. Simply put, I am fascinated by politicians and their behavior as they rule over us while knowing we determine their fates at the ballot box. I am a former Editor in Chief of the academic journal Political Research Quarterly. Currently, I am involved in several research projects, including examining the political significance of the growing Hispanic population in the southern United States, changing party affiliation in the southern electorate, election reforms and voter confidence, the opinions of local election officials toward voting reforms, ticket splitting in the 2022 midterm, and reasons why voters register as independent/unaffiliated.

I married my college sweetheart, an Oklahoma native, and we have two sons. My family enjoys traveling and every fall I root hard for the Pokes when they take to the gridiron.