D. Stephen Voss
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dstephenvoss.bsky.social
D. Stephen Voss
@dstephenvoss.bsky.social
Political scientist based in Kentucky, specializing in U.S. (especially Kentucky/Southern) politics, elections/voting, & cultural politics. Political analyst for Spectrum One News, recurring guest & occasional host on WVLK. Posts do not speak for employer.
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Did Trump swing Black voters his way in 2024? In the electorate as a whole, maybe not - but my analysis of Louisiana voting patterns using ecological inference does support the idea Trump saw gains in heavily Black areas.

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Less White than Ever? Using Ecological Inference to Probe the Trump Coalition’s Diversity in Louisiana
Pre-election polls in 2024 showed former President Donald Trump performing relatively well with African-American voters, especially males. Now that Trump has beaten Vice President Harris to retake the...
www.degruyterbrill.com
Research by UK Poli Sci Ph.D. Ridvan Peshkopia just out, exploring the linkage between personality traits and support for human rights.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Differential personality predictors and contextuality in human rights support: how the Big-Five personality model predicts support for human rights in a post-ethnic conflict society
In the debate between the universal versus contextual dimension of attitudes toward human rights, we argue that personality can explain differences in support for human rights, and that different p...
www.tandfonline.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Come work with us! Two #PoliticalScience jobs in the #ComparativePolitics subfield, one in comparative behavior (ideally democratic attitudes/participation) & one ideally in Emerging Democratic Institutions. Please circulate widely!

ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600...

ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600...
Assistant or Associate Professor in Political Science
The Department of Political Science in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY seeks to fill a tenure-eligible faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Prof...
ukjobs.uky.edu
September 22, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by D. Stephen Voss
#NEW | Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot Wednesday while attending an event at Utah Valley University.
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk shot at Utah college event
Kirk is the co-founded of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA.
spectrumnews1.com
September 10, 2025 at 7:38 PM
An essay on trends in higher education by Jeffery Tyler Syck. My main takeaway: Universities have been moving in the wrong direction if they want to cultivate students capable of surviving in an economy ruled by artificial intelligence.
August 19, 2025 at 3:59 PM
"If we can generate valid arguments, beautiful art and compelling novels at the level of human experts—possibly better!—by entering a simple prompt into a text box, is there any point in continuing to do these things ourselves?"

thepointmag.com/examined-lif...
A Matter of Words | The Point Magazine
Over the course of the past two years, university committees focused on the impact of artificial intelligence have assembled across the country.
thepointmag.com
May 13, 2025 at 2:34 PM
One person's waste is another person's policy priority.
April 29, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Reposted by D. Stephen Voss
How is the U.S. Senate race shaping up? Does an incumbent-free Sixth District contest create an opening for Dems? We talk with UK political analyst @dstephenvoss.bsky.social.
How is the U.S. Senate race shaping up? Does it create an opening for Dems? We talk with a UK political analyst
With Sixth District Congressman Andy Barr officially joining the race for U.S. Senate, two big names are in — and they're both seeking a Trump endorsement.
www.wuky.org
April 24, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Did Trump swing Black voters his way in 2024? In the electorate as a whole, maybe not - but my analysis of Louisiana voting patterns using ecological inference does support the idea Trump saw gains in heavily Black areas.

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Less White than Ever? Using Ecological Inference to Probe the Trump Coalition’s Diversity in Louisiana
Pre-election polls in 2024 showed former President Donald Trump performing relatively well with African-American voters, especially males. Now that Trump has beaten Vice President Harris to retake the...
www.degruyterbrill.com
April 18, 2025 at 12:01 PM
“Feeding yourself is a basic human right,” said Jim DeSana, a Republican state representative in Michigan who has a farm and recently introduced legislation to allow more people to raise backyard chickens.

www.wsj.com/lifestyle/eg...
Everyone Wants to Raise Chickens, but Egg-Layers Can Be Bad Neighbors
Cities are asking hard questions about a fad that can bring messes, rats and unexpected costs; ‘We put the kibosh on it.’
www.wsj.com
April 3, 2025 at 2:10 PM
"Republicans broadly sympathize with the Israelis (75%) over the Palestinians (10%), while Democrats sympathize with the Palestinians over the Israelis by a nearly 3-to-1 ratio (59% vs. 21%)."

news.gallup.com/poll/657404/...
Less Than Half in U.S. Now Sympathetic Toward Israelis
More Americans express sympathy for the Israelis (46%) than the Palestinians (33%) in the Middle East situation, but the margin has shrunk to a new low.
news.gallup.com
March 6, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Political Science major Olivia Walton has won a nationally competitive award to study at Oxford, where she will take courses intended to advance her other major (English). Congrats, Olivia!

uknow.uky.edu/student-news...
Bardstown junior to study at Oxford on English-Speaking Union Scholarship
uknow.uky.edu
February 7, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Cool piece by Kentucky Poli Sci Ph.D. @bayleeharrell.bsky.social challenging the expectation that use of private military contractors would lead to increased sexual violence. If anything, their professionalism (& desire for business) may reduce risks.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Sexual violence in the shadows: Private military contractors and the perpetration of sexual violence
How do private military contractors (PMCs) influence the perpetration of sexual violence? In providing the first empirical assessment of PMCs’ impact on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), I a...
www.tandfonline.com
February 6, 2025 at 6:37 PM
"El Salvador has agreed to house violent US criminals..."

Someone please tell me that this is obviously unconstitutional? The idea of citizens being shipped outside U.S. jurisdiction for detainment feels like dystopian sci fi.

www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/a...
El Salvador offers to house violent US criminals and deportees of any nationality in unprecedented deal | CNN
El Salvador has agreed to house violent US criminals and receive deportees of any nationality, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday, in an unprecedented – and legally problematic deal – ...
www.cnn.com
February 4, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I've been teaching in PS101 that the presidential honeymoon is dwindling away, but Dems better hope these numbers are caused by the newness of the Trump Administration (or by polling error).

Meanwhile, wow, independents hate Nancy Pelosi.

news.gallup.com/poll/656111/...
Few Major U.S. Political Figures Rated Positively on Balance
Marco Rubio, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Hakeem Jeffries are among a few of the key U.S. political figures Americans rate more positively than negatively.
news.gallup.com
February 4, 2025 at 3:03 PM
One reason we understimate the importance of elections is that when the public mood shifts, policy often will shift with it even before an election can reset the political leadership.
December 19, 2024 at 11:20 PM
My analysis of Kentucky's Republican realignment from the Nineties to the Twenties, coauthored with Corrine Elliott & @drsherelleroberts.bsky.social, now appears in the Commonwealth Review of Political Science. It's available for download:

digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crps/vol7/is...
Seeing Red in the Bluegrass: How the Democratic Party Lost Kentucky’s Voters
Editor’s Note: This article received the David Hughes Memorial Award at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Political Science Association. It is published as it was submitted at the time, prior to...
digitalcommons.murraystate.edu
December 17, 2024 at 5:49 PM
A Financial Express piece on the threat of a BRICS currency coauthored by a former graduate student, @RajanKumarJNU.

www.financialexpress.com/opinion/trum...
Trump need not fear the BRICS currency, as it is not happening anytime soon
Donald Trump has warned BRICS countries against developing an alternative currency to replace the US dollar, threatening heavy tariffs. His comments follow growing efforts by countries like Russia and...
www.financialexpress.com
December 8, 2024 at 9:01 PM
If they archived the data from my now-broken phone and they're willing to give it back, then they're welcome to keep spying on me.
December 5, 2024 at 2:40 AM
If you live in Jessamine County, KY, or nearby ... we're having an interdisciplinary discussion about the Electoral College: the history, the empirical record in the recent past, the future.
November 30, 2024 at 12:52 AM
"Many Senate Democrats think that voters’ sour views about Biden’s record was driven by their anger over rising costs ... But there’s a growing feeling among Democratic lawmakers that the Biden administration completely mismanaged the huge surge of migrants..."

thehill.com/homenews/sen...
Democratic senators say they bungled border security in 2024
Democratic senators are privately acknowledging that their party committed “political malpractice” by bungling the issue of border security, which they view as a driving factor behind President-ele…
thehill.com
November 29, 2024 at 12:21 PM
"Today, Americans 55 and over control nearly 70% of U.S. household wealth..."

I wonder how many former students remember the line I used to employ in my PS 101 Domestic Policy lecture: "Your grandparents are stealing from you." It was tongue in cheek, & yet...

www.wsj.com/us-news/baby...
‘We’re Not Dead Yet.’ Baby Boomers’ Good Times Drive the Economy.
Sky-diving, concerts, classic cars. An influx of older Americans bolsters the nation’s fastest-growing city. ‘We have more fun than our daughter.’
www.wsj.com
November 29, 2024 at 11:48 AM
"17 percent of Americans say it’s very or somewhat likely that they will argue over politics at Thanksgiving (only 6 percent say it is very likely), compared to 11 percent last year..."

Democrats (23%) are more likely to say this than Republicans (18%).

tinyurl.com/59d7nfce
Political arguments at Thanksgiving are much less common than you think
If you’re tempted to bring your ideology to the table along with the stuffing, maybe just don’t.
tinyurl.com
November 28, 2024 at 6:38 PM