Books

Politics in Our Veins: The Rise of Dominican Political Power in the United States

(Forthcoming 2026, NYU Press)

Dominican Americans are one of the largest and fastest-growing Latinx groups in the United States, with a population that has quadrupled from 517,000 to a little over 2.3 million as of 2023. While New York City is home to the largest Dominican community in the country—and is where most Dominican American elected officials (DEOs) are from—Dominican Americans continue to increase their representation nationwide. In Politics in Our Veins, Yalidy Matos, Domingo Morel, and Michelle Bueno Vásquez chart the rise of Dominican American political power across the United States, exploring the myriad factors that have contributed to their political success as thoughtful citizens, activists, and elected officials.

Drawing on original surveys, in-depth interviews with elected officials, and archival data, Matos, Morel, and Vásquez trace the past, present, and future of Dominican American political power, demonstrating how one group fought from the margins for a seat at the table. They explore how community, civic, and cultural organizations have played an important role in helping newly immigrated Dominican Americans gain political power through influential national coalitions like “Dominicans on the Hill” and the Dominican National Roundtable. They also examine how identity politics, in particular race and gender, influence the political attitudes and behavior of DEOs.

Politics in Our Veins shines a light on how Dominicans have created avenues for political engagement, identifying where barriers to participation have been dismantled, where they remain, and where new obstacles are emerging.

Developing Scholars: Race, Politics, and the Pursuit of Higher Education. 

(2023, Oxford University Press)

Over the past fifty years, debates concerning race and college admissions have focused primarily on the policy of affirmative action at elite institutions of higher education. But a less well-known approach to affirmative action also emerged in the 1960s in response to protest and urban unrest. These programs offered a more radical, community-centered approach to college access: admitting and supporting students who do not meet regular admissions requirements and developing scholars at their local public institutions of higher education. In Developing Scholars, Domingo Morel explores the history and political factors that led to the creation of college access programs for students of color. Through a case study of an existing program, Talent Development, Morel shows how protest, including violent protest, has been instrumental in the maintenance of college access programs. He also reveals the hidden forms of restriction that emerged in response to these programs, which have significantly impacted students of color and the promise of higher education as a mechanism of opportunity.

Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy          (2018, Oxford University Press)

Winner of the 2019 W.E.B. Du Bois Distinguished Book of the Year Award, National Conference of Black Political Scientists

Available here: Oxford University Press, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.

Takeover examines how state takeovers of local governments affect Black and Latino political empowerment. The book argues that although the era of “New Federalism” in the 1970s and 1980s was associated with devolution of government authority, the shift of power from the federal level to states, led to centralization of state authority. As states gained greater powers, urban localities became increasingly subjected to state intervention. The emergence of state takeovers of local school districts in the 1980s was a consequence of the increasing authority of state governments.

The book argues that the emphasis on devolving authority to state governments was a response to the rise of Black political empowerment in American cities. I show that as cities gained greater Black representation in city government, the likelihood of a state takeover of their school district increased.  Furthermore, as Black empowerment increased, state takeovers had a negative effect on Black representation on school boards.  At the same time, the book also demonstrates that under certain conditions, state takeovers can advance Black and Latino political empowerment, contrary to conventional wisdom. State takeovers can help politically marginalized groups by disrupting the existing dominant governing regimes and by providing opportunities for previously excluded groups.

This book offers new insight into the post-1960s government response to the growth of Black political empowerment while also bucking the conventional wisdom in Political Science that state intervention in local communities is unequivocally disempowering; thus offering a novel framework for understanding how state intervention affects racialized communities.

Latino Mayors: Power and Political Change in the Postindustrial City (2018, Temple University Press)

(Co-edited with Marion Orr)

Latino Mayors is the first collective study of Latino mayors in the U.S.  It covers eleven (11) Latino mayors and six cities. This volume looks at Latino mayors’ political campaigns and how race, class, and economic issues shaped the formation of their winning electoral coalitions.  All of the nation’s Latino mayors entered City Hall in the post-industrial era, when the local economy became increasingly focused on service provision, finance, tourism, entertainment, and culture.  The volume examines the challenges Latino mayors have faced as they navigate the political tensions that manifest when they attempt to address the needs of low-income racialized communities and assemble governing coalitions comprised of leading corporate elites.  The volume also addresses dimensions of leadership; providing analysis of the background, motivation, skills, style, and coalition-building abilities of these pioneering mayors.

Publications

2025. Wells, Lauren and Domingo Morel. “Community Cultural Wealth in Stakeholder Perceptions of the Return to Local Control of Schools,” Urban Education.

2021. Morel, Domingo, Akira Drake Rodriguez, Mara Sidney, Nakeefa Garay and Adam Straub. “Measuring and Explaining Stalled Gentrification in Newark, New Jersey: The Role of Racial Politics,” Urban Affairs Review.

2021. Matos, Yalidy and Domingo Morel. “Dominican Political Incorporation in the United States,” Latino Studies.

2021. “How Community Engagement Helped Transform the Union City Public Schools.” Peabody Journal of Education.

2020. “Who Governs?: How Shifts in Political Power Shape Perceptions of Local Government Services,” with Sally A. Nuamah. Urban Affairs Review.

2016. “Race and State in the Urban Regime.” Accepted for publication, Urban Affairs Review.

2016. “The Effects of Centralized Government Authority on Black and Latino Political Empowerment,” Political Research Quarterly.

2016. “Latino Public School Engagement and Political Socialization,” with Marion Orr, Kenneth Wong,and Emily Farris. In Urban Citizenship and American Democracy: The Historical and Institutional Roots of Local Politics and Policy, eds Amy Bridges and Michael Javen Fortner. New York: SUNY Press.

2014. “Black and Brown Coalition Formation in New England: Latino Perceptions of Cross-Racial Commonality,” with Marion Orr and Katrina Gamble. In Ciencia Politica: The Scientific Analysis of Latino Politics in the United States, eds. Anthony Affigne, Evelyn Hu-DeHart, and Marion Orr. New York: New York University Press.