My research examines the organizations, networks, and strategies that movements use to make lasting institutional change. I focus on the relationships between young adults, movement entrepreneurs, and political elites, showing how social movements build the capacity to influence, replicate, or even replace institutions over time.

My book project, Building the New Right, explores how young conservative activists in Young Americans for Freedom and their elite backers worked together to capture the Republican Party from 1960 to 1980.

Current projects include a study of the contemporary career trajectories of professional conservative activists and the roles of movement groups in staffing presidential administrations.