My research investigates how people think about politics as well as how thoughts and preferences are translated into political activity. In terms of labels, political communication, political psychology, political geography, and environmental politics could all be aptly applied to my work.
Much of my published research focuses on understanding the political psychological foundations of geographic polarization (including especially the urban-rural divide). In related research, I study the relationship between political communication, nationalization, and partisan polarization. My research focuses overwhelmingly on the United States, but I have related projects investigating regional resentment (e.g., the “North vs. South Divide”) in the United Kingdom.
I have also published multiple papers pertaining to political violence in the United States and how ordinary Americans think about political violence.
My recent, current, and future work will focus increasingly on environmental and conservation politics within the U.S. In particular, the question of how we build broad coalitions to enhance the durability of environmental decisions is central to this work.
My work has been published in Environmental Politics, Political Behavior(x4), Political Geography, Political Research Quarterly(x2), Legislative Studies Quarterly, Environmental Politics, American Politics Research, Prevention Science, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, and Research & Politics, as well as featured by the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Fox News, News Nation, The National Review, New York Magazine, and Slate Magazine.
I have also contributed commentary to The Hill, The Washington Post, The Brookings Institute, The Niskanen Center, Democracy Journal, Washington Monthly, The U.S. Centre at the London School of Economics, and National Public Radio.
2025. "What's Woke? Ordinary Americans' Understandings of Wokeness," with Benjamin VanDreew, Joseph B. Phillips, and Spencer Goidel, Research & Politics
2025. "When Push Comes to Shove: How Americans Excuse and Condemn Political Violence," with Joseph B. Phillips, Nicole Huffman, Arif Memovic, and Jake Fork, Political Behavior
2024. "Rural Residency, Rural Resentment, and Attitudes Toward Public Land Management in the United States," with Zoe Nemerever, Environmental Politics
2023. “Place, Race, and the Geographic Politics of White Grievance,” with Ryan Dawkins, Zoe Nemerever, and Francesca Verville, Political Behavior
2023. “Of Rural Resentment and Storming Capitols: An Investigation of the Geographic Contours of Support for Political Violence in the United States,” with Arif Memovic and Olyvia Christley, Political Behavior
2023. “Talk Local to Me: Assessing the Heterogeneous Effects of Localistic Appeals," with Richard Burke, American Politics Research
2022. “Place-based Resentment in Contemporary U.S. Elections: The Individual Sources of America's Urban-Rural Divide," with Nicholas F. Jacobs, Political Research Quarterly
2021. “Promoting Voter Turnout: an Unanticipated Impact of Early-Childhood Preventive Interventions," with John Holbein, Catherine Bradshaw, Nicholas Ialongo, and Jill Rabinowitz, Prevention Science
2021. “Place, Candidate Roots, and Voter Preferences in an Age of Partisan Polarization: Observational and Experimental Evidence," Political Geography
2020. “Staying in Place: Federalism and the Political Economy of Place Attachment," with Nicholas F. Jacobs, Publius: The Journal of Federalism
2020. “Us Over Here Versus Them Over There … Literally: Measuring Place Resentment in American Politics,” Political Behavior
2020. “Information Valence and Evaluations of Congress and Individual Legislators: Experimental Evidence Regarding Negativity Bias in Politics” with H. Benjamin Ashton, Legislative Studies Quarterly
2019. “Experimental Evidence on the Relationship Between Place-based Appeals and Voter Evaluations," with Nicholas F. Jacobs, Political Research Quarterly
2025*. "Why Does Place Matter More (Politically) to Rural People? Political Communication, Fomenting Place Resentment, and Urban Collective Narcissism," conditionally accepted* to appear in Rethinking Rural Politics (Nicholas F. Jacobs, editor), with Nicole Huffman.
2024. "Voter Access and Ballot Security in Utah," UVU Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy, with Mikelle Dahl.
2023. “Faction is the (Only Viable) Future for the Democratic Party,” The Niskanen Center, with Robert P. Saldin.
2023. “American Electoral Politics is Dominated by the Rural-Urban Divide. What Factors Explain It? And Can Policy Intervention Ameliorate It?,” UVU Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy.
2021. “Local Beats, National Consequences: The Link Between Local News And American Democratic Health,” The Niskanen Center, with Robert P. Saldin and Richard Burke.
2021. “Understanding Strategic Capacity in Constituency-Based Organizations”, SNF Agora Institute/Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, with Lynsy Smithson-Stanley, Jane Booth-Tobin, and Hahrie Han
2021. “Gone Country: Why Democrats Need to Play in Rural America, and How They Can Do It Again,” The Niskanen Center, with Robert P. Saldin.
“The (Asymmetric) Performativity of Geographic Polarization”
"Place Resentment in the United Kingdom” (under review)
"Explaning the gender gap in support for political violence" (under review)
"Competitiveness, Resentment, and Polarization"
Replication data for much of my published research is available on the Harvard Dataverse (please search there, if interested). For data pertaining to any of my other published research, please shoot me and email and I will happily provide it: kalmunis@live.com