PhD and MA, Political Science, University of Missouri - Columbia
MA, Library & Information Science, University of Iowa
BA, Social Science and History, Northwestern College (IA)
I am a specialist in political thought and American political history. Research interests include American ideology, presidential elections, U.S. third parties, midwestern populism, social reform movements, nature of democracy, religion and state, subsidiarity and sphere sovereignty, social class, and world order.
Courses taught include American National Politics, Introduction to Politics, Ancient & Medieval Political Thought, Modern Political Thought, American Political Thought, International Relations, Comparative Politics, Global Security Issues, Community Politics, Public Policy; Kingdom, Identity, & Calling (Core 100); and Calling, Task, & Culture (Core 399).
In addition to being a teacher, I am a writer. Scholarly work includes three books: Where Did the Party Go?: William Jennings Bryan, Hubert Humphrey, and the Jeffersonian Legacy (University of Missouri Press, 2006); Politics on a Human Scale: The American Tradition of Decentralism (Lexington Books, 2013); and The Political World of Bob Dylan: Freedom and Justice, Power and Sin (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
I had the privilege of being one of 28 voting delegates representing the state of Iowa at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.
In October 2015, I hosted the first quadrennial, national presidential politics conference on Dordt's campus. Our second Presidential Politics Conference of Iowa was held in October 2019.
I served as Director of the Core Program at Dordt from 2018-20.
I represent District 2 (Sioux, Lyon, and half of Plymouth counties) in the Iowa State Senate, having been elected in the November 2020 election.