David Nanninga

Advisor

Dr. Barry Hankins, Dr. Elesha Coffman

Education

M.A. in History, Baylor University, 2023

B.A. in History Education, magna cum laude, Cornerstone University, 2019

Expected Graduation Date

August 2028

Research Interests

My research centers on the intersections of American political, religious, and sports history. My dissertation tracks the rise of former athletes becoming politicians in the last 50 years and the role that prominent celebrity athlete-politicans like Bill Bradley and Jack Kemp had in creating this “Jock Caucus,” which played an integral part in the marriage of sports, politics, and celebrity in modern America.

Selected Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles:

“'Disgust' and 'Disgrace': Cultural Evangelical’s Reaction to Jimmy Carter’s Draft Evader Pardon and Early Memory of the Vietnam War in Texas,” Journal of Church and State, February 2024.

“‘Preventing Armageddon’ or ‘Appeasement?’: The Battle for Cultural Evangelical Hearts and Minds in Texas over Jimmy Carter and SALT II,” Fides et Historia, Summer 2024.

Public Facing Articles:

Patheos, Anxious Bench-“Was Carter a Progressive Evangelical or Centrist Politician?”

Patheos, Anxious Bench-“The Politicization of Evangelical Surfer Bethany Hamilton”

Selected Activies

Awards

• Dennis H. O'Brien Graduate Student Award in History, 2021-2022
• The Portia Gordon Best Student Essay Award, East Texas Historical Association, October 2023

Grants

• Research Travel Grant, The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, 2026

Recent Presentaions

“Bleeding Heart Conservatives and Dirty Tricksters: Jack Kemp, the Far Right, and the Complicated Limits of Respectable Conservatism in the 1980s and 1990s,” American Political History Conference Meeting, June 2026.

“Neoliberal ‘Empowerment’ in the City and the Pews: Jack Kemp, Urban Renewal, and the Black Church in the Bush Era,” The Society for U.S. Intellectual History Annual Meeting, November 2025.