Lauren Prather
@laurenrprather.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Political Science in the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego find my work here: https://www.laurenprather.org/
Wow.🤯 I just used @yamilrvelez.bsky.social Github repo for enabling Claude Code as an agent for Qualtrics surveys: github.com/yrvelez/qual... Claude Code took a disorganized Word doc survey draft and turned it into a stellar Qualtrics survey--better-formatted than any survey I've ever written 😅
GitHub - yrvelez/qualtrics-mcp-server
Contribute to yrvelez/qualtrics-mcp-server development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
Check out the latest from the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections at UCSD. Find more of our work here: elections.ucsd.edu
UC San Diego@ucsandiego.bsky.social · 3w agoFewer than half of Americans expect the 2026 #MidtermElections to be free and fair. 🗳️ There are bipartisan concerns about AI, prediction markets, foreign interference and cyber attacks: https://bit.ly/46t3l2n
The Johns Hopkins SNF Agora Institute convened "Civic Right" gatherings for conservatives who support democratic civic norms. New report distills eight takeaway themes plus various state-specific observations (Virginia, Colorado, Texas, Alaska, Wyoming, Pennsylvania). /1
snfagora.jhu.edu
📄 (Paper) Wrongful Detention, Right Response: The Domestic Politics of Hostage Diplomacy 📍 (Panel) Foreign Policy Attitudes - Sat, September 5, 4:00 to 5:30pm EDT ✍️ (Author) @laurenrprather.bsky.social #APSA2026 #EGAPAPSA #APSA
📄 (Paper) State-Controlled Media and Low-Quality Election Observers 📍 (Panel) Forum Shopping and Regime Complexity in Global Governance - Sat, September 5, 12:00 to 1:30pm EDT ✍️ (EGAP Authors) @laurenrprather.bsky.social & Sarah Bush #APSA2026 #EGAPAPSA #APSA
#ELB: “Will Trump interfere in the midterms? Democrats and their allies are preparing” https://electionlawblog.org/2026/will-trump-interfere-in-the-midterms-democrats-and-their-allies-are-preparing/
The Election Resource Hub is a one-stop-shop connecting the latest academic research in election science with practical, actionable results for election officials nationwide. Learn more about what inspired this new tool and what resources are currently available in our launch blog:
Announcing the Launch of the Election Resource Hub | MIT Election Lab
The new Election Resource Hub will house leading research in the field of election administration for researchers, policymakers, and administrators.
buff.ly
"What Trump did NOT do was even purport to show a single ineligible voter voted in the 2020 election, or that any voting machines were actually compromised, voting machines or voter registration databases breached, or election results inaccurately reported."
Rick Hasen@rickhasen.bsky.social · 3mo agoTrump’s Underwhelming Announcement on Voting Does Not Even Purport to Show Any Illegal Votes Were Cast in the 2020 Election or That Voting Machines Have Been Hacked or Vote Totals Inaccurate; He Made a Pitch to Pass the SAVE America Act But Offered No New Fed Mandates electionlawblog.org?p=157434
Our elections are free, fair, and secure. Every single one of the President’s unhinged, fabricated conspiracy theories about our elections were thrown out of court. Sixty. Four. Times. Poisoning trust in our elections is an attack on all Conservatives & all Liberals. On democracy itself.
Michael Clemens@mclem.org · 4mo agoHere is a definitive summary, by a group of Conservative jurists with integrity, of the facts in those 64 cases against our 2020 elections. The cases were a numb, cynical train wreck of falsehoods. Every judge threw them out of every court. Sixty four times. —> lostnotstolen.org
All joking aside, Pochettino is an incredibly vibes based coach. The man famously keeps a bowl of lemons on his desk to absorb negative energy. What could possibly have brought more negative energy to the USMNT than the entire world thinking they cheated thanks to a racist moron king?
*the coolest shit you've ever seen* FIFA Ref: ...offsides
Soccer is my favorite sport and always will be, but Jesus Christ they've got to do something about this VAR issue. Every exciting moment devolves into legalistic nitpicking and standing around. For a match like this to end with Zapruder analysis and trigonometry is simply not fun!!!
Ambivalence is an essential feature of public opinion. Few Americans outright support undemocratic practices but many more are ambivalent. Important new research: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/ I'm starting the holiday weekend off with some good vibes. I’m not giving bad news any headspace right now, so let's pause and celebrate some public health wins that have happened recently!
#ELB: “US Postal Service cannot carry out Trump order on mail ballot delivery, judge rules” https://electionlawblog.org/?p=157023
If you credulously do a segment about the vote in California in which you don’t say the president is lying, you’re spreading disinformation to your listeners.
@thejop.bsky.social announces the right to refuse consideration of manuscripts of those who have declined to review 3+ times. Careful who you co author with!
An article about Trump's iconography citing our work in the UAE in the Guardian. A well-researched read! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... @mcgillpolisci.bsky.social @cpsjournal.bsky.social @sarahbush.bsky.social @laurenrprather.bsky.social
The Guardian view on Trump’s omnipresence: commanding attention like a king | Editorial
Editorial: The president’s image and name are proliferating in Washington and beyond, overturning well-advised democratic taboos on glorifying sitting leaders
theguardian.com
New paper @pnasnexus.org w/ @brendannyhan.bsky.social & @elsavoytas.bsky.social Can we reduce support for violent extremism? And, if so, which messages work best?
Online communitarian appeals increase opposition to violent extremism
Abstract. Governments and nongovernmental organizations have implemented hundreds of countering violent extremism (CVE) programs designed to combat radical
doi.org
Go ahead and slam journalists when they deserve it. I certainly do. But also realize that New York Times journalists Declan Walsh and Arlette Bashizi willingly traveled to an Ebola ward in the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to inform the world. Many journalists are heroes. (NYT gift link)
Inside the Ebola Epicenter, the Virus Rages With Little to Stop It
nytimes.com
DOGE's impact: a new study looks at “the earliest evidence of the impact of cuts to USAID on the incidence of violent events” which suggests that “the radical cuts […] led to an increase in conflict in the regions that received the most aid from the United States.” www.404media.co/doge-cuts-un...
DOGE Cuts Unleashed a Deadly Wave of Violence Across Africa, Study Finds
The dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is associated with measurable increases in Africa, especially in areas most dependent on the agency’s support.
404media.co
“The dismantling of USAID, according to models from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols, “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children,” Gawande wrote.” hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-s...
USAID shutdown has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, accord...
hsph.harvard.edu
Joshua Foust 🪖🎮@joshuafoust.com · 5mo agoThe single most defining thing Elon Musk has ever done is killing untold numbers of people by having DOGE illegally raid and disband USAID. Not rickets, not cars, not even the CSAMbot on X. It’s this, and so many media pundits just choose to unsee it.
The single most defining thing Elon Musk has ever done is killing untold numbers of people by having DOGE illegally raid and disband USAID. Not rickets, not cars, not even the CSAMbot on X. It’s this, and so many media pundits just choose to unsee it.
USAID shutdown has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, accord...
hsph.harvard.edu
Jamison Foser@jamisonfoser.bsky.social · 5mo agoelon musk spends two-thirds of his time spreading racist pseudoscience and hating trans people and here is Ezra Klein in 2026 saying Musk is relentlessly focused on the only things that matter to him: EVs and going to Mars. I'm sorry but the guy's just very very dim
SCOTUS decided, to inject itself into an ongoing election & at this point no one can say otherwise. It has historically used the Purcell doctrine to ensure that courts aren't meddling in elections, and yet this court felt comfort in doing so. Everyone needs to understand this.
Climate change impacts are here, but public support for action remains polarized. Which climate messages move people? In a ~13,500-person megastudy, we tested 10 of the most-cited messages. Six increased pro-environmental attitudes in the U.S.—but only by 1–4 percentage points. 🧵
