CHARLES R. HUNT
Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boise State University
208-426-3686
RESEARCH
Research Interests
American Politics (Congressional Representation, Congressional Elections, Electoral Competition)
Political Methodology (Research Methods, Natural Experiments)
Scholarly Publications
Hunt, Charles. 2025. “Homegrown Rural Representation in Congress, 1944-2024.” Forthcoming book chapter from Rethinking Rural Representation. Ed., Nicholas Jacobs.
Hunt, Charles. 2025. “Following the Money Trail in the 2024 Elections.” Forthcoming book chapter from The Elections of 2024. Ed., Michael Nelson. University of Virginia Press.
​
Rouse, Stella, Charles Hunt and Jay Barth. 2024. “In the Interests of Millennials? Exploring Generational Representation in U.S. State Legislatures.” Forthcoming in State Politics and Policy Quarterly.
Hunt, Charles and Kristina Miler. 2024. “'How Modern Lawmakers Advertise Their Legislative Effectiveness to Constituents.” Forthcoming in Journal of Politics.
Hunt, Charles, and Stella Rouse. 2023. “Polarization and Place-Based Representation in U.S. State Legislatures.” OnlineFirst in Legislative Studies Quarterly.
​
​Hunt, Charles. 2023. “Book Review: ‘Midterms and Mandates: Electoral Reassessment of Presidents and Parties.’” OnlineFirst in Party Politics.
Hunt, Charles and Jaclyn Kettler. 2023. “Donors, Spenders, and Nationalization in the Race for Congress.” Forthcoming book chapter in Roads to Congress 2022. Eds., Sean D. Foreman, Marcia L. Godwin, Walter Clark Wilson. Palgrave Macmillan.
Hunt, Charles, and Stella Rouse. 2023. “Local Roots and Electoral Advantages in U.S. State Legislatures.” OnlineFirst in State Politics and Policy Quarterly.
Hunt, Charles. 2022. “Won’t You Be My Senator? Revisiting ‘Friends and Neighbors’ Voting in Congressional Elections.” Electoral Studies 80.
Herrnson, Paul S., Jaclyn Kettler and Charles Hunt. 2022. “Vive la Différence? Is There a Gender Gap in Campaign Strategy and Spending, and Does it Matter?” Forthcoming in Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy.
Rouse, Stella, Charles Hunt and Kristen Essel. 2022. “Growing Tea With Subnational Roots: Predicting Tea Party Affiliation in State Legislatures.” American Politics Research 50(2): 242-254.
​
Hunt, Charles. 2021. “Beyond Partisanship: Outperforming the Party Label With Local Roots in Congressional Elections.” Congress and the Presidency 48(3), 343-372.
​
Hunt, Charles. 2021. “Campaign Finance Trends and Developments in the 2020 Elections.” Book chapter from The Elections of 2020. Ed., Michael Nelson. University of Virginia Press.
​
Hunt, Charles. 2021. “Expanding Constituency Support Through Shared Local Roots in U.S. House Primaries.” 2021. American Politics Research 49(2), 233-244.
​
Hunt, Charles, Jaclyn Kettler, Brendan Glavin, Michael J. Malbin, and Keith E. Hamm. 2020. “Assessing Group Incentives, Independent Spending, and Campaign Finance Law by Comparing the States.” Election Law Journal 19(3), 374-391.
​
Burgat, Casey and Charles Hunt. 2020. “Team Players: How Committee Staffers Clear the Runway for Legislative Action in Congress.” Book chapter from Congress Overwhelmed. Eds., Tim LaPira, Kevin R. Kosar and Lee Drutman. University of Chicago Press.
​
Hunt, Charles. 2018. “When Does Redistricting Matter? Changing Conditions and Their Effect on Voter Turnout.” Electoral Studies 54, 128-138.
Working Papers
Hunt, Charles and David Fontana. 2024. “Do Voters Prefer Local Candidates? Multimethod Evidence from the U.S. Senate.” Revised and Resubmitted at Political Behavior.
Hunt, Charles. 2024. “Candidate Residency Requirements, Deep Roots, and the Politics of Place.” Under review.
Fowler, Luke and Charles Hunt. 2024. “Environmental Politics and a Polarizing Congress, 1974-2022.” In Progress.
Kettler, Jaclyn, Charles Hunt, Brendan Glavin, Michael J. Malbin, and Keith E. Hamm. 2024. “State Party Organizations, Independent Expenditures, and Spending Strategies.” In Progress.
Hunt, Charles and Jaclyn Kettler. 2024. “The New Money Trail: Financing Congressional Elections from 1990-2022.” In Progress.
Recent Conference Papers
“The New Money Trail: Financing Congressional Elections from 1990-2022.” (with Jaclyn Kettler) American Political Science Association Annual Conference, 2024.
“Environmental Politics and a Polarizing Congress, 1974-2022.” (with Luke Fowler) Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference, 2024.
“Polarization, Professionalism, and Local Connections in U.S. State Legislatures.” (with Stella Rouse) Southern Political Science Association Annual Conference, 2023.
“'Communication Style' With Substance: How Legislators Advertise Their Effectiveness to Constituents.” (with Kristina Miler) American Political Science Association Annual Conference, 2021.
​
“Won’t You Be My Senator? Revisiting ‘Friends and Neighbors’ Voting in Congressional Elections.” Southern Political Science Association Annual Conference, 2021.
​
“Local Roots in Historical Perspective: The House of Representatives, 1960-2020.”Congress and History Conference, 2020
​
“In the Interests of Millennials? Exploring Generational Representation in U.S. State Legislatures.” Southern Political Science Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2020. (with Stella Rouse and Jay Barth)
​
“Whose Politics is Local? New Empirical Perspectives on the Modern U.S. House.” Pacific Northwest Political Science Association, Boise, ID, 2019.
​
“Higher-Quality Controls: What Types of ChallengersReally Succeed?” Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, 2019.
Public Research and Media
“Americans may want them, but term limits won't make Congress great again.” The Conversation. May 15, 2024.
“Is this the least productive congress ever? Yes, but it’s not just because they’re lazy.” The Conversation. April 1, 2024. (Republished in the Miami Herald, Portland Press-Herald, and Providence Business News)
“Nikki Haley insists she can lose South Carolina and still get the nomination – but that would defy history.” The Conversation. February 20, 2024.
“Is This How Congress Was Meant to Use Its Impeachment Power?” US News and World Report. February 14, 2024.
“Why New Hampshire and Iowa don’t make sense as the opening rounds of presidential campaigns.” The Conversation. January 22, 2024. (Republished in the Philadelphia Tribune, featured on CNN).
“House speaker paralysis is confusing – a political scientist explains what's happening.” The Conversation. October 18, 2023.
“Tommy Tuberville reportedly doesn’t live in Alabama. Should he still be its Senator?” The Conversation. August 16, 2023. (Republished in Yahoo! News).
“Biden's dragging poll numbers won't matter in 2024 if enough voters loathe his opponent even more.” The Conversation. May 5, 2023.
“When it comes to explaining elections in Congress, gerrymandering is overrated.” The Conversation. March 28, 2023.
“Speaker of the House faces political peril from member deaths and resignations – especially with a narrow majority.” The Conversation. January 3, 2023.
“Not all politics is local—but quite a bit of it is.” The Blue Review. August 31, 2022.
“Dr. Oz should be worried. Voters punish carpetbaggers, and new research shows why.” The Conversation. August 19, 2022. (Republished in Salon, Yahoo! News, The Idaho Press, San Antonio Express-News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Alternet, and MSN)
​
“Politics is still local. When incumbents face off in redrawn districts, community ties make a big difference.” The Washington Post (Monkey Cage Blog); November 30, 2021.
​
“6 months from the election, where does the race for control of Congress stand?” Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group, LegBranch.com; May 3, 2020
“Bernie talks about a revolution. Does he act on it?” Brookings Institution; April 11, 2020 (with Casey Burgat and Trey Billing)
“Congressional representation may be nationalizing, but some politics is still local.” Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group, LegBranch.com; March 13, 2019
​
“The 116th freshman class will be the 2nd most educated—and least politically experienced—in the history of the House.” Brookings Institution; December 28th, 2018. (with Casey Burgat)
​
“Freshman class of Congress is looking younger, more female.” USA Today; November 12, 2018 (with Casey Burgat and Trey Billing)
​
“​Why was the Peter Strzok hearing such a circus? Because Congress wanted it that way.​” ​The Washington Post (Monkey Cage Blog); July 17, 2018 (​ with Casey Burgat)
​
“​How Committee Staffers Clear the Runway for Legislative Action in Congress.​” ​Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group, LegBranch.com; June 15, 2018 (​ with Casey Burgat)
​
“Members of Congress may not look like their constituents, but they do look like their parties.” Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group, LegBranch.com, 2018
“No, gerrymandering is not THE cause for non-competitive congressional elections and legislative polarization.” Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group, LegBranch.com, 2018
​
“Are Long Weekends Reducing Congress’ Productivity?” Policy short published by the R Street Institute; re-published as shortened op-ed in Inside Sources (with Casey Burgat)
“Revisiting the Evidence on Party Contribution Limits.” Report published by the Campaign Finance Institute, 2017 (with Michael J. Malbin)
​
​