Research

Party Factions & Partisan Polarization in Congressional Nominations: How Ideological & Factional Primaries Influence Candidate Positions

Dissertation in Political Science

Committee: Christian Lammert, Sean M. Theriault, Max Steinhardt, Rachel M. Blum, and David Bosold

The thesis first documents changes in the dynamics of U.S. congressional primary competition between 2006 and 2020; namely, the proliferation of ideological and factional contests. I then consider the impact of primaries on candidate positions in terms of the selective (voter) effect, between-election adaptative effect, and within-election adaptative effect. Taken together, these findings indicate that primary voters do not selectively reward non-centrist position-taking, but candidates often behave as if they do, adapting their positions both between and within election cycles. These findings align with existing literature that primary selectorates are not more ‘extreme’ than non-primary voting party voters but suggest that candidates are responding to the widely-held narrative that they are.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Cowburn, Mike and Rebecca Kerr. 2022. “Inclusivity and Decentralisation of Candidate Selectorates: Factional Consequences for Centre-Left Parties in England, Germany, and the United States”. Political Research Quarterly.

Cowburn, Mike and Michael T. Oswald. 2020. “Legislator Adoption of the Fake News Label: Ideological Differences in Republican Representative Use on Twitter”. The Forum 18(3): 389–413.

Book Chapters

Cowburn, Mike. 2022. “Experience Narratives and Populist Rhetoric in U.S. House Primaries” in Michael T. Oswald (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Populism. Palgrave Macmillan.

Cowburn, Mike. 2020. “The Transformation of the Congressional Primary” in Michael T. Oswald (ed.) Mobilization, Representation and Responsiveness in The American Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan.

In Progress

Cowburn, Mike and Marius Sältzer. “Partisan Communication in Two-Stage Elections: The Effect of Primaries on Intra-Campaign Positional Shifts in Congressional Elections” [Revise & Resubmit]

Blum, Rachel M. and Mike Cowburn. “How Local Factions Pressure Parties: Activist Groups & Primary Contests in the Tea Party Era” [Under Review]

Mike Cowburn and Curd B. Knüpfer. “The Emerging Fault Line of Alternative News: Intra-Party Division in Republican Representatives’ Media Engagement” [Under Review]

Other Publications

Cowburn, Mike. 2020. “Not Just the Presidency: Congressional Primaries 2020.” Atlantische Akademie

Cowburn, Mike. 2020. “Fostering Engagement in Primaries and Caucuses.” PolticalScienceNow

Conference Papers

04/2022	Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference (MPSA), Chicago, IL Paper: “How Local Factions Pressure Parties: Activist Groups & Primary Contests in the Tea Party Era” Paper: “The Emerging Fault Line of Partisan Media News: Intra-Party Division in Republican Representatives’ News Engagement”
01/2022	48th Annual Conference of the American Politics Group of the UK Political Studies Association (PSA)* Paper: “How Local Factions Pressure Parties: Activist Groups & Primary Contests in the Tea Party Era”
09/2021	117th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA), Seattle, WA Paper: “The Effects of Primaries on Intra-Campaign Positions in Congressional Elections” Paper: “Intra-Party Division and News Media Engagement Among Republican Legislators”
06/2021	11th Annual Meeting of the European Political Science Association (EPSA)1 Paper: “Primary Roots of Partisan Polarization: The Effects of Primaries on Intra-Campaign Positional Shifts in Congressional Elections”
06/2021	Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies (DGfA)1 Paper: “Congressional Primaries in the 21st Century: Participation, Inequality, and Intra-Party Division”
04/2021	Annual Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA)* Paper: “Partisan Communication in Two-Stage Elections: The Effect of Primaries on Intra-Campaign Positional Shifts in Congressional Elections”
03/2021	Political Studies Association Annual Conference* Paper: “Inclusivity and Centralisation of Candidate Selectorates: Factional Consequences for Centre-Left Parties in Germany, England, and the United States”
01/2021	49th Annual Conference of the American Politics Group of the UK Political Studies Association* Paper: “Legislator Adoption of the Fake News Label: Ideological Differences in Republican Representative Use on Twitter”
11/2020	Annual Meeting of the Political Science Section of the German Association for American Studies* Paper: “Republican Legislator Adoption of the Fake News Label”
09/2020	116th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association* Paper: “Ideological Difference & Party Destabilization in Congressional Primary Contests”
08/2020	European Consortium for Political Research General Conference* Paper: “Intra-Party Ideological Disagreement in Congressional Nomination Processes”
07/2020	Early Career Network Annual Conference of the Political Studies Association* Paper: “The Rise of Ideology in U.S. Congressional Primaries”
06/2020	Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association* Paper: “Ideological Competition in U.S. Congressional Primaries”
06/2020	Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies~ Paper: “Polarizing Primaries? Income Inequality & Congressional Candidate Selection”
04/2020	Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference~ Paper: “From Personal to Ideological: The Transformation of the Congressional Primary” Paper: “The Evolution of the Fake News Label: Ideology & Time in Congress as Determinants of Republican Representative Use on Twitter”
12/2019	British Association for American Studies Postgraduate Conference, British Library Paper: “Communication in Congressional Primaries: The Rise of Ideology in Intra-Party Contests”
11/2019	Annual Meeting of the Political Science Section of the German Association for American Studies, Heidelberg University Paper: “Democratic Re-Engagement? The Ideological Foundations of Growing Primary Participation”
06/2019	Threatened Democracies: Interdisciplinary Conference in North American Studies, University of Göttingen Paper: “Fractured Parties and Factional Nominations”
06/2019	Intra-Party Politics in Times of Crisis: Party Congress Research Group Annual Meeting, University of Strathclyde Paper: “Intra-Party Factionalism and Ideological Competition in US Congressional Primaries”
11/2018	Annual Meeting of the Political Science Section of the German Association for American Studies, Passau University Paper: “Mediators of Faction: The Transformation of the Congressional Primary”

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