My research centers on multiracial democracy. Democracy, at its core, is shared rule by the people; in a multiracial political order, that commitment requires power to be shared across racial difference. I study the dimensions of democracy through which shared rule is realized: secure and equal membership, effective political power, and durable protection from coercive domination across groups. Across my projects, I ask why the United States has not consolidated a multiracial democracy, how herrenvolk democracy has shaped American political development, and how political institutions can widen or restrict shared rule. I draw on historical analysis, survey research, measurement, machine learning, and comparative institutional analysis.
Multiracial and Herrenvolk Democracy
Herrenvolk Democracy: Race, Exclusion, and the American Political Order
Book project
Why, after nearly 250 years of democratic development, has the United States not consolidated a multiracial democracy? The book argues that the United States developed as a herrenvolk democracy: a political order that extended meaningful democratic rule within a dominant racial group while preserving inequalities in membership, power, and protection across groups. Tracing American political development from the colonial period to the present, it examines how institutional choices—including those made through courts and the federal structure—repeatedly foreclosed openings for multiracial democracy. Reconstruction and the post-1965 period emerge as critical openings that weakened the herrenvolk order without consolidating a multiracial democracy alternative.
“Democracy for Whom? Herrenvolk Democracy and the American Founding”
Published in PS: Political Science & Politics, First View, 2026, pp. 1–8 | Open access
This article examines the founding era as a critical period in the development of herrenvolk democracy. It shows how early American democratic institutions organized political membership through racial exclusion, with particular attention to the relationship between democracy, citizenship, and the 1790 Naturalization Act.
“Democracy and the Power-Sharing Deficit”
Manuscript in preparation
This paper develops a group-centered account of democratic power-sharing. Existing measures of democracy largely capture institutions and procedures; the Power-Sharing Index measures whether political power, civil standing, and protection from coercive domination are shared across the groups that constitute the people. The paper uses the United States to show how institutional democracy can coexist with persistent group domination and how changes in shared power alter the trajectory of democratic development.
Institutional Foundations of Multiracial Democracy
Institutions, Power-Sharing, and Democratic Reform
Current research program
My work as the Guinier Project Postdoctoral Fellow at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice examines how electoral institutions structure political power across racial groups and how their effects vary across legal, demographic, and political contexts. I am particularly interested in proportional representation and other alternatives to single-member districts as institutional arrangements that may reshape representation, coalition formation, governing power, and democratic quality. This research connects political science scholarship to the development and evaluation of reforms intended to make shared rule more effective and durable.
Race and Political Behavior
My research on Latino politics examines how identity, political incorporation, and social context produce variation within groups that are often treated as politically homogeneous.
“The Myth of the Zero-Sum: Rethinking Acculturation in American Politics”
Revise and resubmit, Politics, Groups, and Identities
This paper challenges the assumption that immigrant-origin individuals must choose between adopting American culture and preserving their heritage culture. Using the 2006 Latino National Survey, it shows that most Latinos occupy hybrid acculturation positions—including biculturalism—that conventional binary models overlook.
APSA Preprint ⏐ GitHub Code ⏐ Harvard Dataverse Replication Data
“Acculturation, Identity, and Latino Politics”
Under review
This paper examines how acculturation shapes Latino political behavior. It shows that bicultural, demicultural, culture-affirming, and assimilationist orientations produce distinct political profiles, with especially important differences on immigration, belonging, and democratic membership.
APSA Preprint | GitHub code | Replication data
“Why Groups Diverge: Latino Support for Trump, 2016–2024”
Presented at MPSA 2026; manuscript in preparation
This project examines political heterogeneity within the Latino electorate across the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections. Using random-forest models and SHAP-based interpretation, it identifies recurring patterns involving partisanship, immigration, racial justice, and punitive law-and-order attitudes that help explain divergent vote choices within the group.
Related public scholarship: “Latino Support for Trump in 2024: Trends and Insights from an Empirical Analysis,” published in Political Science Now with Luis R. Fraga.