News

U.S. Capitol Building
Mar 17, 2021

The “Do-Something” Members of the 116th Congress: Legislative Effectiveness Study from the Batten School and Vanderbilt University Identifies Member Success in Advancing Bills

Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., along with Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and retired Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., were the most effective Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the recently completed 116th Congress (2019–20), according to new research from Batten's Center for Effective Lawmaking.

Craig Volden
Mar 06, 2020

Productive Politicians Fare Better in Primaries

Now that Super Tuesday is behind us, voters can look forward to another primary in the spring – this time for Congressional candidates. As a professor of public policy and politics at the Batten School and co-director of the Center for Effective Lawmaking, Craig Volden has studied what factors make for a successful candidate and drawn some conclusions about this state’s congressional delegation.

Craig Volden
Jul 18, 2019

Professor Spotlight: Craig Volden

“My mother was a professor of nursing at the University of North Dakota, and she served as associate dean of the School of Nursing for a number of years,” said Volden. “So, I grew up with an example of what it meant to be a valued professor and an academic leader. Although I thought of pursuing other paths along the way, this one felt very natural to me as I finished college and started into graduate school.”

Garrett Hall at Sunset

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