Bankrupting Democracy: Campaign Spending in a Marketplace of Ideas is my forthcoming book (University Press of Kansas the anticipated release is August 2026). It is rooted in my dissertation work, exploring the relationship between campaign finance reform and the organizational structures of interest groups producing political ads in elections from 1976-2020.

Thinking about what a marketplace of ideas looks like has been far from static. In the book I look at how the belief in the existence of a “marketplace of ideas” shapes legislative decisions about regulation. Different ideas about who can participate, how they can participate, and what can be done to promote/hinder involvement have changed regularly.

My book tracks the different ways legislators and the Supreme Court have viewed what a healthy marketplace of ideas actually looks like in presidential elections, eventually resulting in a model designed to favor corporate interests, not candidates or the public.