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Tyler Simko

@simko.bsky.social

440 followers 340 following 17 posts

State & local politics + computational social science. tylersimko.com

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Political science 29%

Economics 19%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Mirya R. Holman, Lesley Bartlett, Tyler Simko

Michael Petrilli @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social · 3d

New from Fordham, the Wallace Foundation, @dmhouston.bsky.social & Michael Hartney:

Who’s on Board? School Boards and Political Representation in an Age of Conflict fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

Who’s on Board? School Boards and Political Representation in an Age of Conflict

School boards have become ground zero for America’s education culture wars, with fiery debates over race, gender, curriculum, and pandemic policies making national headlines. But beyond the noise, how...

fordhaminstitute.org

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Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · 27d

Thanks so much @stano.bsky.social !! Yes, will definitely post a public draft here when we have it ready.

Reposted by Tyler Simko

Center for Political Studies @umisrcps.bsky.social · Sep 8

👀 Local governments often take "symbolic" stances on issues where they hold no authority or jurisdiction. @simko.bsky.social and Taran Samarth examine the dynamics and purpose of "symbolic representation" by studying the response of US local governments to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. #APSA2025

At APSA 2025: Local Governments and Symbolic Representation
In Event: Political Representation in Urban Politics
Thu, September 11, 8:00 to 9:30am PDT
Tyler Simko, University of Michigan
Taran Samarth, Yale University

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Efrén O. Pérez, Robert C. Richards , and 2 more Anna O. Law, Efrén O. Pérez, Robert C. Richards, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Tyler Simko

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Aug 29

Echoing @mirya.bsky.social, thanks David!! We’re super grateful for your interest.

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Aug 28

Trump’s proposed rush job Census isn’t just immoral and regressive—it will harm communities across the country and compromise data quality: @chriskenny.bsky.social and I in @thehill.com today:

thehill.com/opinion/camp...

Trump’s proposed snap Census won’t get him the seats he wants

A new Census would likely diminish political representation for Republican areas.

thehill.com

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Reposted by Tyler Simko

Chris Kenny, PhD @chriskenny.bsky.social · Aug 27

Do you use tract boundaries in your research? Jake Brown, @simko.bsky.social, and I have a new working paper (osf.io/preprints/so...): Any Way You Slice It: Racial Segregation Statistics are Robust to Aggregation Bias

We show that tract-level segregation is robust to MAUP using simulation methods.

OSF

osf.io

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Reposted by Tyler Simko

Mirya R. Holman @mirya.bsky.social · Aug 25

Among those who selected cell phones as most important issue, we asked their support for banning all cell phones

A bar chart showing the most important issue selected by all respondents (green bar) and parents (purple bar)

All respondents
w children
Strongly disgree
5%
5%
Disagree
19%
21%
Agree
43%
41%
Strongly agree
32%
33%

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Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Tyler Simko

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · Aug 22

"shifts in political geography and gerrymandering reduced the number of highly competitive districts by over 25% [from 2010 to 2020], with geographic polarization driving most of the decline."

Cory McCartan @corymccartan.com · Aug 22

Timely WP from our ALARM project team: we generated over 200k simulated maps for the 2010 cycle, to compare against our existing 2020 simulations. This lets us disentangle changes in gerrymandering from changes in political geography!

alarm-redist.org/papers/ggpre...

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Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Aug 21

Great article, and a good example of the continuing value of public, open source research tools (we published these simulations in 2022). When new claims and arguments arise, anyone can use existing resources to examine them.

Cory McCartan @corymccartan.com · Aug 21

NYT used our ALARM project redistricting simulations to talk about geographic bias against the parties and what counts as "fair" in redistricting!

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Is Massachusetts a Gerrymandered State?

Can you recognize a gerrymander?

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Tyler Simko

Cory McCartan @corymccartan.com · Aug 21

NYT used our ALARM project redistricting simulations to talk about geographic bias against the parties and what counts as "fair" in redistricting!

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Is Massachusetts a Gerrymandered State?

Can you recognize a gerrymander?

www.nytimes.com

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Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Aug 8

Thanks so much, and yes! Will shoot you an email now.

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Aug 8

Thanks so much @sjacks26.bsky.social!! We’re really excited by this, really hoping the data can be useful for other things exactly like this.

Reposted by Maxwell Palmer, Tyler Simko

Ben Schneer @benschneer.bsky.social · Aug 8

You may have noticed things are happening fast in the world of redistricting…

I along with @maxwellpalmer.com and @simko.bsky.social wrote an article last week (though published today) that analyzes the changes to the congressional district map in Texas, and particularly San Antonio.

Republicans are seeking to create a durable gerrymander in Texas

Short-term tactical gains in Texas could ultimately yield a race to the bottom.

www.expressnews.com

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Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Aug 6

Thanks for reading David!! What a nice surprise to hear from you. Hope all is well and we can catch up soon.

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Reposted by Tyler Simko

Greer Mellon @greermellon.bsky.social · Jul 22

In our polarized political environment, I’m excited to share my new ASR publication: “Competence over Partisanship: Party Affiliation Does Not Affect the Selection of School District Superintendents”. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Reposted by Tyler Simko

Austin Buchanan @austinlbuchanan.bsky.social · Jul 20

Texas was already arguably the biggest Republican gerrymander in the nation, according to this PNAS paper by @chriskenny.bsky.social @corymccartan.com @simko.bsky.social @shirokuriwaki.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

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Reposted by Tyler Simko

Reposted by Samuel L. Perry, Caroline Krafft, Justin H. Kirkland , and 3 more Samuel L. Perry, Caroline Krafft, Justin H. Kirkland, David C. Kimball, Urban Affairs, Tyler Simko

Mirya R. Holman @mirya.bsky.social · Jul 8

It’s publication day!!🎊 In a new Urban Affairs Review @urbanaffairsreview.bsky.social piece, Rebecca Johnson, Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social & I ask: How do you measure conflict in local politics in the United States?
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Measuring Conflict in
Local Politics
Mirya Holman1 ,
Rebecca Johnson2
,
and Tyler Simko3

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Reposted by Tyler Simko

Center for Political Studies @umisrcps.bsky.social · Mar 31

Is government suspicion based on real lived experiences and historic harm? #ISRNextGeneration scholar Franshelly Martinez-Ortiz writes on the case of Michigan, where events like the Flint Water Crisis give rise to lasting mistrust. @maraceci.bsky.social #MPSA2025 ➡️
cpsblog.isr.umich.edu?p=3434

In Michigan, conspiracy thinking can be rooted in real historic harm

Conspiracy thinking may result from paranoia or misinformation -- but it's often rooted actual harms and well-earned mistrust in government.

cpsblog.isr.umich.edu

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Reposted by Tyler Simko

Mirya R. Holman @mirya.bsky.social · Mar 14

Had a fantastic time presenting Tabling Debates How Local Officials Use Agenda Control to Stifle Conflict (paper w @simko.bsky.social) at Cornell today. Huge thanks to @talbotmandrews.bsky.social for the invite and everyone for showing me such a good time!

A picture of a slide that says Tabling Debates how local officials use agenda control to Stifle Conflict
Mirya Holman and Tyler Simko
There are flames on the bottom of the slides

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Reposted by Zack Taylor, Hanno Hilbig, Tyler Simko

Noah Dasanaike @noahdasanaike.bsky.social · Feb 14

Urban–rural cleavages are seen as a defining political divide. But does this polarization hold worldwide? My new working paper tests this question using an original dataset of granular, geocoded election returns from 106 countries (polling station-level in 70). (1/8)

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Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Jan 30

This sounds amazing. The summary is like one of these Facebook targeted t-shirt ads, but aimed at my research interests.

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Jan 30

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but online radio is great for this kind of thing (WQXR is really good). I like this show — every day has a theme (e.g. first masterpieces, a specific composer, concertos, etc.) which is fun for learning and making connections: www.wfmt.com/programs/exp...

Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin | WFMT

Exploring Music is an adventure — an expedition through the world of classical music. We pick a theme each week and follow the music wherever it leads us.

www.wfmt.com

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Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Jan 24

Yes! And compatible with emojis for when you really need that extra energy...

Example of cli R package for status messages.

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Jan 23

As a first-generation college student, I found it difficult to adjust to university academics and the “hidden curriculum.” How can universities help students ease this transition?

In a new RCT, we (Rebecca Johnson, Kosuke Imai) show “summer bridge” programs can be valuable tools: shorturl.at/WS9Kf

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

shorturl.at

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Reposted by Tyler Simko

Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · Jan 23

How can state and local government partnerships help to safeguard US official statistics when they are under assault? Find out in my @univpressofkansas.bsky.social book, "Counting Like a State".

Preorder for a 30% discount with code 24COUNTING here: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639687/

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Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · Jan 18

Woah, congrats Stefan! What a cool honor, and well deserved.

Reposted by Tyler Simko

Justin de Benedictis-Kessner @jdbk.bsky.social · Jan 15

Are Democratic leaders making cities more dangerous than Republicans? Trump + others have repeatedly made claims like this. New paper in Science Advances w/ @chriswarshaw.bsky.social, Dan Jones & Matt Harvey shows that, in short, the answer is no.

Abstract of article titled "The partisanship of mayors has no detectable effect on police spending, police employment, crime, or arrests"

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