Kevin DeLuca

I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University. I study American politics, and my research interests include elections and media.

I am currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at MIT and Faculty Affiliate of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, during the 2025-2026 academic year.

I am also a Resident Fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) and Faculty Affiliate at the Center for American Political Studies (CSAP), both at Yale. Previously, I was an affiliate of the Center for American Political Studies (CAPS) and Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences (IQSS) at Harvard. I have also worked for the MIT Election Data and Science Lab (MEDSL) and was part of the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.

I can be reached at kevin.deluca@yale.edu.

Publications

6. A Drag on the Ticket? Estimating Top-of-the-Ticket Effects on Down-Ballot Races (with Daniel Moskowitz and Benjamin Schneer) American Journal of Political Science (2025) pub pdf
5. Editor's Choice: Measuring Candidate Quality using Local Newspaper Endorsements Journal of Politics (2025) pub pdf
4. A Partisan Solution to Partisan Gerrymandering: The Define-Combine Procedure (with Maxwell Palmer and Benjamin Schneer) Political Analysis 32(3): 295-310 (2024) Winner of the Society for Political Methodology Miller Prize for the best work appearing in Political Analysis in 2024 pub pdf
3. The Power of Characters: Evaluating Machine Learning Modified Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding Inference of Race in Redistricting (with John A. Curiel) State Politics & Policy Quarterly 24(3): 300-321 (2024) pub pdf
2. Validating the Applicability of Bayesian Inference with Surname and Geocoding to Congressional Redistricting (with John A. Curiel) Political Analysis 30(3): 465-471 (2023) pub pdf
1. American Election Results at the Precinct Level (with Samuel Balz et al.) Scientific Data 9: 651 (2022) pub pdf

Works in Progress

7. Local News in the Crosshairs: Audience Perceptions of Algorithmic News Sites (with David A. Beavers) (Working Paper) draft
6. Reading Between the Headlines: Candidate Coverage and Electoral Accountability in Presidential Elections (with Zoe Kava) (Working Paper)
5. The Influence of Biased Local Newspaper Endorsements (Working Paper) Presented at the 94th Annual Southern Political Science Association Meeting, January 2023. Honorable Mention for the Pi Sigma Alpha – Malcolm Jewell Award draft
4. Optimal Media Bias for Political Accountability (In Progress)
3. Publicity-as-Lobbying: Newsies Little Merchants and Newspapers Fight for Labor Exemptions (In Progress)
2. Reverse Media Capture: Editorial Blackmail and the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 (with Andrew Beingessner and Marina Legoretta) (In Progress)
1. The Decline of Evening Newspapers: Partisan Slant's Impact on Election Results (with Tyler Simko, James M. Snyder Jr., and B.K. Song) (In Progress)