I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Government Department, where I study American political institutions and statistical methods. My applied research examines issues of representation in American legislatures. I measure the degree to which legislators diverge from their constituents and seek systematic explanations for this divergence. In this vein, my dissertation studies how interest groups foster the incumbency advantage through their campaign contributions. I identify institutional reforms that dampen the influence of interest groups, reduce the incumbency advantage, and encourage candidate convergence. I develop statistical methods motivated by the needs of my applied work. This includes work on scaling candidates using roll-call votes and using campaign contributions, as well as work on causal inference and measures of uncertainty. For more information on my work, please see all of my papers here.