Jay Dow

Biography

Jay Dow is Professor of Political Science and Constitutional Democracy. Professor Dow joined the University of Missouri faculty in 1992. Before coming to the University of Missouri, he earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Dow’s research focuses on voting and elections, with his current research centered on the development of United States electoral institutions and processes. This is reflected in his Electing the House: The Adoption and Performance of the Single-Member District Electoral System (University Press of Kansas, 2017) and The First Elections: The Rise of Electoral Democracy in the Early American Republic (University Press of Kansas, 2026). Professor Dow regularly teaches courses on American government, parties and elections, and the “Constitutional Debates” course for the Kinder Institute’s Honors College series. He also serves as co-editor for the University of Missouri Press Studies in Constitutional Democracy series.