Expertise:
U.S. Senate, American Politics, U.S. Elections, Voting Rights, Elections, Race and Ethnic Politics, Voter Mobilization, Centrist Politics (U.S. Senate), Asian Americans in Congress, Race and Ethnicity, American PresidencyNeilan Chaturvedi focuses his research on American politics, with an emphasis on Congress, the Presidency, elections, voting rights and voting behavior, and race and ethnicity. His research has been published in Religion and Politics, Politics Groups and Identities and The Journal of Asian American Studies. His most recent book on the power dynamics in the United States Senate is under review. The book contains insights from six retired Senators, and he makes the case that despite conventional wisdom and political science logic, centrists in the Senate are more vulnerable than powerful.
Recent Grants and Fellowships:
- Seattle University, Research Assistant Grant, for Surviving the Ideological Center: The Influence of Moderates on Lawmaking in the Senate, 2013-2014, $2,000
- Dirksen Center, Congressional Research Award, for Surviving the Ideological Center: The Influence of Moderates on Lawmaking in the Senate, $3,500, 2013-2014.
- University of California, Irvine; Associate Dean’s Fellowship; Spring 2012; Spring 2013
- Center for the Study of Democracy, Peltason Fellow, 2011-2013
Selected Publications:
- With J. Cuellar, “Op-Ed: When inclusion becomes distortion in a top-two election,” Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, March 24, 2026
- With T.P. Le, “Understanding Responses to Global Terrorism: How Do Americans React to Terror and How Does it Impact Opinion on the Use of Force?,” Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 107, Issue 2, March 2026
- Life in the Middle: Marginalized Moderate Senators in the Era of Polarization (Oxford University Press, October 2021)
- Minority Power: Interests, Power, and Representation (Under contract with Routledge Press)
- With C. Hayes, “Strategic position taking: optimal strategy for Senate candidates in the Obama era,” The Journal of Legislative Studies, Dec. 10, 2021
- With C. Haynes, “Polls and Elections: Is Loyalty a Powerful Thing? Republican Senate Campaign Strategy and Trump Coattails in the 2016 Election.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 49, no. 2 (2019): 432-448.
- With P.A. Miller, “Get Out the Early Vote: Co-Ethnic Mobilization and Convenience Voting,” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties, Vol. 28, No. 4: 399-423, 2018
- “Filling the Amendment Tree: Majority Party Control in the US Senate,” American Politics Research. Vol. 46, No. 4: 724-74, 2017
- With C. Holloway, “Postdiluvian? The Effects of Outside Group Spending on Senate Elections After Citizens United and Speechnow.org v. FEC,” The Forum, Vol. 15, Issue 2: 251-267, 2017
- With M.N. Beckmann and J.R. Garcia, “Targeting the Treatment: The Strategy Behind Lyndon Johnson’s Lobbying,” Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 42, Issue 2: 211-234, 2017
- “Kings of the Hill? An Examination of Centrist Behavior in the United States Senate.” Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 98, Issue 5: 1250-1263, 2017
Interviews:
- “Algorithims, influencers are rewriting political campaigns,” The Poly Post, Sept. 15, 2025
- “How to change your voter registration after moving,” USA Today, Aug. 19, 2024
- “A sign of moderates running scared: What everyone is getting wrong about Sinema’s party switch,” The Hill, Dec. 12, 2022 (opinion)
- “Why a Democratic Senate majority still matters — even if they lose the house,” Vox, Nov. 3, 2022
- “What do Manchin and Simena want?,” Washington Post, Jan. 26, 2022 (news analysis)
- “Kyrsten Sinema is less of a political enigma than she is a strategic policymaker,” The Hill, Dec. 17, 2o21
- “Cozying up to Trump may have hurt Perdue and Loeffler in the Georgia run-off,” Washington Post, Jan. 1, 2021 (news analysis)
- “Compulsory voting would increase satisfaction with candidates,” Sacramento Bee, Aug. 16, 2016 (opinion)
- Daily Bulletin, “What was Pomona voters’ message when they threw out all the incumbents?” December 2016
Education:
B.A., Political Science, University of California, Riverside
M.A. and Ph.D., Political Science, University of California, Irvine