Connecting Campaign Finance Scholars and Reformers: Building a Research Agenda
Half Day Short Course | Register here
2026 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition — Boston, MA
9:00 am – 1:00 pm
One of the original rationales for the organization of the Campaign Finance Research Group (CFRG) was to bring together campaign finance scholars, reform advocates, and policy makers “in order to inform the policy debates on campaign finance issues.” As the authors of CFRG’s 2001 application for Related Group status wrote, “the CFRG will help shrink the often wide gap between the work of scholars and that of policy makers and help make the results of research done by political scientists more relevant for lawmakers, government officials and citizens.” With this purpose in mind, we propose here a short course that brings together scholars, policy makers, and reform advocates to discuss public funding programs and proposals for small-dollar financing of American political campaigns. Broadly speaking, the aim of the short course is for scholars, policy makers, and reform advocates to learn from each other and, ultimately, to lay out a research agenda moving forward that would advance the development, evaluation, and fine-tuning of public financing and small-dollar campaign finance programs.
The participants in the short course will be a group of scholars who have conducted research in the area of public financing and a group of reform advocates and policymakers who have advocated for, developed, and/or participated in these programs. Thematically, we plan to organize the course around a series of broad discussions:
• Ways to improve and expand scholarly and reform advocate collaboration
• Perspectives on whether public financing programs are achieving their aims, which are generally thought to be the following:
• Minimizing representational distortion by encouraging legislation in the broad interest of voters;
• Broadening and diversifying the donor pool;
• Broadening and diversifying the candidate pool;
• Promoting political equality among citizens and candidates;
• Preventing corruption;
• Increasing public confidence in government and the electoral system.
• Methodological approaches for building a record of evidence to assist policymakers
• Outlining an agenda for advocate and scholarly collaboration
As we envision the workshop, there will be significant opportunities for non-panelists to participate in the discussion.
Broadly speaking, the aim of the workshop is to help build a network of campaign finance scholars and practitioners interested in remaining in contact with each other beyond the workshop in order to exchange information, generate ideas, and produce useful research in the area of campaign finance reform that can serve policymakers. Ideally, moreover, the agenda we outline at the workshop can serve as the basis for grant proposals to support the research.
Because the existing systems of publicly financed elections are publicly transparent, there is extensive data available to analyze. Many of these systems have been in existence for more than a decade. Although analysts have evaluated a few of these systems, many have received little attention and much work remains. For example, there has been very little cross-comparison of the three basic models of small-donor based reform and the variations within each model.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of this effort. With the “collapse of campaign finance regulation in the United States facilitating a path toward oligarchic power redistribution” (Hasen 2025, 1), it is not inconceivable that a climate conducive to national reform—similar to that which emerged in the 1970s (Sorauf 1988; Zelizer 2004)—will materialize in the present-day U.S. If such a climate does in fact take shape, it will be crucial for policy makers to have evidence-based policy proposals at the ready in order to take advantage of the window of opportunity. What’s more, multiple states and localities are already exploring and moving forward with new public funding programs. The network of scholars and reform advocates we build here can be instrumental in providing a foundation for such proposals.
Although we do not yet have a complete list of scholars and practitioners in place for the short-course, several individuals have committed to participating. They include the following:
Scholars
• Jennifer Heerwig (SUNY Stony Brook)
• Elizabeth Rigby (George Washington University)
• Michael Malbin (SUNY Albany)
• Ray LaRaja (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
• Jennifer Victor (George Mason University)
Reform Advocates
• Nick Nyhart (Former President & CEO, Public Campaign/Every Voice Center)
• Sarah Bryner (Public Agenda)
• Keshia Morris Desir (Demos)
• Patrick Llewellyn (Campaign Legal Center)
• Brendan J Glavin (Open Secrets)
• Ian Vandewalker (Brennan Center)
- APSA Annual Meeting Pre-conference Short Courses are half- or full-day events that offer diverse professional development opportunities and allow attendees to connect with scholars from various backgrounds. This year’s pre-conference short courses will be held on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts. Sponsored by APSA Organized Sections, Related Groups, and other affiliated organizations. All short courses require pre-registration to attend.
- Register here for the APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition »
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