Renae Marshall

Welcome! I am an Environmental Policy and American Political Science PhD Candidate dedicated to bridging divides and fostering bipartisan cooperation to tackle critical societal challenges, particularly climate change.

When and why do lawmakers at the state and federal levels work across party lines, even in a polarized landscape?

My dissertation project begins by exploring an understudied mechanism of bipartisan collaboration at the federal level: the congressional caucus system. These voluntary, informal groups provide a platform for legislators across the aisle to convene, deliberate, and sometimes advance policy on specific policy issues outside of their formal committee roles. However, little is known about when and why legislators choose to engage with these groups, and whether or not legislators and voters alike perceive bipartisan caucus membership as politically risky. I use a unique mix of experimental and observational methods to investigate these questions. First, I employ results from two national surveys to gauge voter perceptions of caucus membership. Next, I integrate legislator and staffer interview data with congressional caucus membership records spanning the 110th to 118th Congresses. I determine whether caucus participation translates into tangible policy outcomes in a selection of salient policy areas. Lastly, I shift focus back to the state level. Using a dataset that documents both passed and failed climate-progress policies across all 50 states from 2020 to 2024, I identify political contexts and bill content characteristics that enable or hinder bipartisan cooperation. Together, these studies contribute to a broader understanding of how bipartisan progress on pressing societal issues can emerge—even in a deeply polarized landscape.

My academic background includes a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where I graduated with summa cum laude honors and was awarded the Outstanding Graduate of the CU College of Arts and Sciences for 2021. My honors thesis project, later published in Climatic Change, analyzed decarbonization-related bills from 2015-2020 across all 50 states, highlighting the policy content associated with both bipartisan and partisan bill co-sponsorship.

At Bren, I utilize a variety of methodological tools, including national surveys and expert interviews, to delve into topics such as climate policy design and ranked-choice voting. Building on my honors thesis research, I developed a national survey experiment to assess public support for combining climate-related policies with other policy areas like social justice and regulatory reform, which was also published in Climatic Change. Additionally, I conducted interviews with Alaska election experts to investigate the effects of ranked-choice primaries, specifically examining whether more moderate candidates are more likely to succeed in general elections.

Outside of academia, I enjoy Irish dancing, watercolor painting, rock climbing, biking along the coast, skiing, and taking my beautiful kitty, Ashe, for hikes.