Seth Warner

Assistant Professor

Political Science

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Seth Warner is an assistant professor in American Politics. His research focuses on polarization, party politics, public opinion, and subnational government. Much of his work examines how citizens relate to political parties as both ideological organizations and social groups, with particular attention to affective polarization, issue ownership, election outcomes, and protest participation. Several of Professor Warner’s projects use original data on affective polarization across states, congressional districts, counties, cities, and towns to study politics as people experience it in their communities.

At UConn, Professor Warner teaches State and Local Government and CT State and Municipal Politics, where students hear from many of the state’s key leaders and policymakers. He also teaches Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior, speaks regularly with the media, and contributes public-facing commentary on elections, polarization, and state politics.

Professor Warner grew up in Connecticut and is a proud product of the state’s public schools. He earned his Ph.D. from Penn State in 2023.

 

Selected publications

Warner, Seth B. “Partisan Wishful Thinking in Polarized Times.” Accepted for publication at Political Behavior.

Warner, Seth B. “Governing Party Issue Ownership and How Citizens Assess Conditions.” Forthcoming at Political Research Quarterly.

Warner, Seth B. “Partisan Animosity and Protest Participation in the United States.” Social Forces 104(2): 476-494. See also public-facing summary in The Conversation.

Phillips, Joseph B., and Seth B. Warner. “Election Outcomes and Affective Polarization in the United States.” Political Research Quarterly 79(2): 399-409.

Warner, Seth B. “Whose Party Is This? Explaining Perceptions of US Party Ideology.” Public Opinion Quarterly 89(4): 1185-1199.

Warner, Seth B. “Toward an Ideological Common Space: Extending Bonica’s CFscores to the Citizen Level.” Political Behavior 46(2): 1303-1324.

 

Working Papers

Warner, Seth B. “Affective Polarization across Time and Place in the United States.”

Warner, Seth B. “Citizen Affective Polarization and Legislative Behavior in Congress.” 

Warner, Seth B., and Andrew Buscemi. “The Hero, Villain, and Victim Narratives of Affectively Polarized Partisans.”

Allamong, Maxwell B., and Seth B. Warner. “Does Local Politics Reduce Affective Polarization? Maybe Not.”