Stone Inequality & Social Policy Seminar: Rachel Blum

Cooperating Factions: A Network Analysis of Party Divisions in U.S. Presidential Nominations

Rachel Blum, Assistant Professor in the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center and the Department of Political Science, University of Oklahoma

Abstract: Popular accounts of presidential nomination politics in the United States often focus on factions, lanes or even a civil war within the party. In this volume, we will use empirical data of endorsements in nominations to identify a network of party actors and the apparent long-standing divisions within each party. We find that there are divisions, but they do not generally map to the competing camps described by most observers. We instead find parties that, while regularly divided, generally have more long-term consensus, rent by periodic and mostly short-lived disagreements, at least as reflected by their presidential nomination actions. We use network analysis methods on endorsements data to identify communities of actors who have similar endorsements patterns. This allows us to test and elaborate on a number of theoretical questions about how parties operate and who they are, focusing on one of the most important domains of party activity - the nomination of the effective head of the party and candidate for the presidency.

Rachel Blum is an Assistant Professor in the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center and the Department of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. in 2016 from Georgetown University. Her research examines how political parties interact with and shape U.S. political institutions. She also specializes in political methodology, with a particular focus on computational methods to analyze large datasets, text-as-data and political networks.

In her book, How the Tea Party Captured the GOP: Insurgent Factions in American Politics (University of Chicago Press, fall 2020), Blum uses a variety of original datasets and analytic techniques to explain how a faction like the Tea Party was able to take over a major political party. Blum's ongoing research projects examine the role of party factions in Congress, party nomination endorsements, primary contests, and amicus curiae networks. She has also published in outlets including Perspectives on Politics and PS: Political Science & Politics.

Blum plays an active role in the Center's women's leadership program and graduate program. She teaches the Center's community engagement internship class, Community Scholars, as well as courses on American politics and political methodology in the Department of Political Science. Prior to her appointment at the University of Oklahoma, she held a faculty appointment at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.