He received his Ph.D. from the University of Houston in 2004 and joined the Texas Tech faculty in 2005. Currently, his research focuses on the development of congressional committees in the United States House of Representatives and the effects of exogenous shocks on the roll call behavior of members of Congress. His work has been published in American Politics Research and he has two chapters forthcoming in Process, Party, and Policy Making: Further New Perspectives on the History of Congress. He teaches undergraduate courses on American government, United political economy, the politics of development, and American public States Congress, American Political Development and Political Parties. At the graduate level he teaches classes on the United States Congress and American Political Development.