phd student @ucberkeley @goldmanschool | political & economic inequality, election law, statistics | @uw @usuaggies alum
Joined February 2022
- Tweets 73
- Following 327
- Followers 328
- Likes 1,446
9 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
26 Jan 2024
here's my new paper on the effect of Citizens United on democracy in the US
tl;dr: Citizens United meaningfully contributed to voter suppression & gerrymandering in the 2010s.
design: diff-in-diff (TWFE & FEct)
full paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/shar…
26 Jan 2024
A new and open-access article to close out the month! “Anti-Democratic Influence: The Effect of Citizens United on State Democratic Performance” from @rfunkfordham (@uw) is now available at the link below: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
2 Oct 2025
New @rfunkfordham report on the 15th anniversary of Citizens United. The evidence is now clear, in part thru Rachel's research, that CitUtd has
increased the influence of billionaires
reduced state democratic performance
made state governments more rightwing
increased corruption
2 Oct 2025
NEW📝: A flood of billionaire money in elections started after the SCOTUS #CitizensUnited decision.
Since 2010, billionaire 💰💰 in elections has grown 160x, giving the wealthy huge power over policy while regular voters lose influence. 🧵1/3
ALT Graph showing billionaire spending in Presidential elections before and after Citizen's United.
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
2 Oct 2025
The result of this ruling was outsized influence on legislators in passing policies that favor wealth. Reviving campaign-finance reform isn’t optional—it’s a prerequisite for a government that answers to people, not billionaires. 3/3
Read our new report ➡️rooseveltinstitute.org/publi…
ALT Quote Graphic from report “Citizens United and the Decline of US Democracy: Assessing the Decision’s Impact 15 Years Later“ by Rachel Funk Fordham, with quote "The Citizens United ruling enabled concentrated economic power to bend politics to its will, amplifying the preferences of a small, ultra-wealthy minority at the expense of the vast majority of the American people. The decision was part of a coordinated effort to shift the balance of power in the US toward the wealthy."
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
2 Oct 2025
One hundred billionaire donors poured a record $2.6 billion into the 2024 elections—1 of every 6 dollars spent.
New analysis from @rfunkfordham on the last 15 years of #CitizensUnited’s impact on democracy. 2/3 rooseveltinstitute.org/publi…
ALT Graph showing breakdown of top 100 billionaire donor spending on outside political spending groups.
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
2 Oct 2025
NEW📝: A flood of billionaire money in elections started after the SCOTUS #CitizensUnited decision.
Since 2010, billionaire 💰💰 in elections has grown 160x, giving the wealthy huge power over policy while regular voters lose influence. 🧵1/3
ALT Graph showing billionaire spending in Presidential elections before and after Citizen's United.
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
26 Jul 2025
.@rfunkfordham quoted in the NYT on young voters
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26 Jul 2025
generational differences in political power, participation, & priorities can make it difficult to form future-oriented winning coalitions. that’s why I loved talking with @GiniaNYT this week about intergenerational political learning in NYC - it’s an incredibly hopeful story ⬇️
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26 Jul 2025
older generations have much more political experience and pragmatism. younger generations rapidly absorb new information and are full of idealism. we can learn so much from each other, and we can’t win the important fights without each other
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
21 Jul 2025
🚨🚨🚨 The Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley is looking for a postdoc on US voting/election policy. I have a feeling this work is gonna be important...
Link to application in reply (musk algo wack)
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18 Jul 2025
we could fret and stew and pontificate about why millions of voters who showed up for biden didn’t vote in 2024 orrrr we could just ask them
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
17 Jul 2025
Maybe I’ll just staple this to my forehead
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
10 Apr 2025
You've probably heard the claim that non-voters are Republican and that Trump would have won by more if everyone had voted.
All the publicly available data says that's wrong.
New from me, Bonica, @rfunkfordham, & Ernesto Tiburcio
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
2 Apr 2025
Calculated some bounds on popular vote share if everyone had voted. Calibrated with some survey data.
w/ Bonica, @rfunkfordham, and Ernesto Tiburcio
link in replies, more soon
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31 Dec 2022
nobody asked but everyone secretly wants to know (it’s like spotify wrapped, just trust me), so here are my top 3 fav films of 2022:
1. petite maman
2. the banshees of inisherin
3. tár
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1 Jan 2024
2023 top 3:
1. oppenheimer
2. killers of the flower moon
3. the iron claw
2023 runners up:
1. the holdovers
2. anatomy of a fall
3. past lives
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4 Jan 2025
2024 top 3:
1. kinds of kindness
2. juror #2
3. red rooms
2024 runners up:
- oddity
- the substance
- conclave
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11 Sep 2024
yesterday biden said “tomorrow I’m doing 9/11” and trump said “I got involved with the taliban” I don’t know how to vote the parties are not distinct enough!!
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25 Jul 2024
If you are an early career researcher studying the interaction between political and economic institutions in the US (broadly defined), you should join the @APSA_APE Junior Working Group!
Sign up to receive updates: forms.gle/t8jhurwvEyJocV8h8
More info: americanpoliticaleconomy.org…
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
13 May 2024
Check out linktr.ee/uawlocal4121 for the hardship fund and other ways to support and show solidarity with ASEs, who are planning to strike starting Tuesday ✊
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rachel funk fordham retweeted
23 Apr 2024
i'm looking forward to discuss @bd_highsmith's work on company towns at this week's @APSA_APE Consortium meeting
join us on Thursday at 3 here: cornell.zoom.us/meeting/regi…
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2 Apr 2024
love to be a zillennial with zero wealth, perfect politics, outdated pop culture references, and that one friend that can only be reached via snapchat even tho that’s the worst means of communication ever invented. we’ve cracked the code - this is clearly the best of both worlds
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