Overview
Nick Carnes joined the faculty at the Sanford School in July 2011. He is a political scientist whose research focuses on American politics, economic and social class inequality, and political representation.
Carnes is currently working on a book that examines the shortage of people from working-class backgrounds in national legislatures around the world. (On leave Spring 2023.)
Carnes is currently working on a book that examines the shortage of people from working-class backgrounds in national legislatures around the world. (On leave Spring 2023.)
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Z. Smith Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Public Policy Studies
·
2024 - Present
Sanford School of Public Policy
Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
·
2022 - Present
Sanford School of Public Policy
Professor of Political Science
·
2022 - Present
Political Science,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Sociology
·
2022 - Present
Sociology,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Recent Publications
The Global Legislators Database: Characteristics of National Legislators in the World's Democracies
Journal Article British Journal of Political Science · February 17, 2025 This article describes the Global Legislators Database, a new cross-national dataset on the characteristics - party affiliation, gender, age, education, and occupational background - of nearly 20,000 national parliamentarians in the world's democracies. Th ... Full text CiteHouse Republicans were rewarded for supporting Donald Trump's 'stop the steal' efforts.
Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · August 2023 In early 2021, members of Congress cast a series of high-profile roll call votes forcing them to choose between condoning or opposing Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Substantial majorities of House Republicans supported T ... Full text CiteThe Economic Backgrounds of Politicians
Book · June 15, 2023 Research on the economic backgrounds of politicians is once again flourishing in political science. In this article, we describe the economic characteristics that scholars have recently studied and the common threads that have emerged in modern work on thi ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
2021 Waterman Award
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2021 - 2026Understanding the Post-Pandemic Foster Home Shortage in North Carolina: Evidence from Interviews with County DSS Leaders
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by NC Policy Collaboratory · 2024 - 2025View All Grants
Education, Training & Certifications
Princeton University ·
2011
Ph.D.
Princeton University ·
2008
M.A.
The University of Tulsa ·
2006
A.B.