Presenting at MPSA Conference
Author: Jackson Terrell | Major: Political Science & History | Semester: Spring 2025
My name is Jackson Terrell. I am a graduating (or, perhaps by time of publication, graduated) senior from Conway, Arkansas. I am a student in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences studying Political Science and History with a minor in Global Studies. For the last three semesters, I’ve been working with Dr. Karen Sebold from the Political Science Department, as well as another undergraduate student, Averi Foster, to study the effects of political polarization on campaign fundraising for United States Senate Elections. After graduation, I am pursuing a Master’s of Theological Studies in seminary.
My research focused on political polarization, which can be best described as the ideological distance between the parties and the electorate, and the effects that increasing political polarization might have on campaign finance. We examined this by looking at statistical relationships that could exist between a candidate’s ideological score, using a commonly accepted measure of ideology, and the ways in which candidates funded their campaigns for office. To narrow the scope, we focused on the Senate in three key Presidential election cycles after the Citizens United decision, which allowed money to be spent and raised by Independent Expenditure groups in unlimited amounts. We decided to study this topic because political polarization affects us every day, whether through ideologically homogeneous policies, lack of bipartisanship, vitriol in the media, or simply intense interpersonal disagreements about policy; campaign finance has a role to play too, as without money, candidates lack viability in the electoral process. We hoped that our research might shed some light on whether candidates were finding some sort of fundraising advantage in taking ideologically extreme positions, therefore contributing to political polarization.
I settled on this topic after taking a series of classes about campaigns and elections, as well as campaign finance. I felt like I had at least a baseline knowledge of the campaign finance system, at least enough to be able to understand trends in the data. However, it was really a series of news headlines that helped push me toward this topic. I kept seeing members of Congress doing and saying things that were highly ideological, which made me wonder how they raised money to get elected to office if the things they said and did were so outrageous. I took that query to my professor, Dr. Sebold, who suggested to me that there was potentially something there to examine. Over the course of the next semester, I worked with Dr. Sebold, as well as my research partner Averi, to refine the idea. Averi and I decided to use the topic for our respective honors thesis projects, and to combine our time and effort into thoroughly examining this topic. Dr. Sebold graciously offered to direct both of our thesis projects, and to help us get the research ready for a national conference.
The first big question Averi and I encountered in this process was how to measure ideology. After digging into the literature, we found a measure of ideology that had been used in similar projects in the past. Then we turned to the question of gathering data. Thankfully, this was not too challenging, thanks to the work of other scholars who have compiled campaign data from official sources, such as the FEC, and made that data publicly available for other scholars and students to use. Without the pre-existing datasets, our research would have been much, much more difficult.
The biggest challenge we faced was that, in the literature, there were few studies that focused on polarization because it is an issue that has really only become center-stage in the last few decades. That also meant there was not a commonly used methodology for examining this kind of topic that we could replicate. Compiling the data would be one thing. Finding a relationship in it would be another. So, Dr. Sebold suggested we enlist the help of Dr. Dowdle, another professor in the department and, quite frankly, a political statistics wizard, who could give us some direction. Dr. Dowdle helped us refine our methodology. Dr. Dowdle played an integral role in our research process.
Once our data was compiled, Dr. Dowdle assisted us in running a number of statistical tests to assess whether there were any relationships between ideology and campaign finance activities. Our findings were largely inconclusive, which was not necessarily out of step with what the literature suggested. However, it did teach us an important lesson- that inconclusiveness is still a significant finding. Through our research, we were able to suggest that, for our dataset, ideology does not appear to be a significant factor in fundraising, nor does fundraising appear to be driving ideological polarization.
We had the opportunity to present our research at two conferences. I presented our paper at the Arkansas Political Science Association Conference in Russellville, Arkansas in March, and then Averi and I presented on a panel at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference in Chicago in April. Both conferences provided us with some constructive feedback on ways we could refine and repeat our study, including looking at different methods of comparing ideology. However, the experience of presenting at the conferences made me feel more confident as I prepared for my defense. I must also mention that I had never visited Chicago, and I had a lot of fun there.
Overall, my undergraduate research experience built my resilience. It was tough, and balancing the demands of it while also maintaining a thriving private life was not always easy. However, the lessons I learned were so valuable, and I know they will help me going forward. After graduation, I’m shifting gears away from Political Science to focus on the most precious of my passions: the church. I’m attending seminary to get my Master’s of Theological Studies and then hope to work as a pastor. However, this experience helped me love learning, and I doubt that love will allow me to stop at a Master’s Degree. Alas, only time will tell.