Dr. Seth C. McKee

Department of Political Science

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I joined Oklahoma State University as a professor of political science in the summer of 2020. I am a proud OSU alumnus with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in economics. In 2005, I earned my PhD in government from the University of Texas at Austin. Before returning to my alma mater, I taught at Texas Tech University, the University of South Florida and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

 

Since my early teens I have been obsessed with two subjects: sports and politics. I am particularly interested in American elections, getting hooked when Republican George H. W. Bush ran against Democrat Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. Given my background as the son of two New England Yankee parents who was relocated to the southern United States as a young child, I have become an expert on the politics of the American South. Growing up in North Carolina, I witnessed firsthand the transition from a Democratic South to a Republican stronghold. Examining the changing party politics of this region, I have published numerous articles and chapters, a book on southern U.S. House contests, a southern politics textbook, and a forthcoming coauthored book on the realignment of rural white southerners to the Republican Party (An Untold Story: Rural Republican Realignment in the Modern South).  

 

I routinely teach courses on American Government, Campaigns and Elections, Political Behavior, and Southern Politics. In addition to teaching and research, I enjoy interacting with media and engaged citizens to discuss the latest happenings in American politics, especially when an election season is underway. I am an unabashed political junkie, consuming gobs of political news while constantly writing about politics. Simply put, I am fascinated by politicians and their behavior as they rule over us while knowing we determine their fates at the ballot box. Currently, I am in my final year as editor in chief of the academic journal Political Research Quarterly while serving as the American Government Coordinator in the Department of Political Science. I am involved in several research projects and soon will begin work on a coauthored book chronicling and analyzing the political significance of the growing Latino population in the southern United States.

 

I married my college sweetheart, an Oklahoma native, and we have two sons. My family enjoys traveling and every fall I root hard for the Pokes when they take to the gridiron.