Bruce Desmarais, the William and Monica DeGrandis-McCourtney Early Career Professor in Political Science, recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to collect a wide range of data on state and local governments’ responses to COVID-19, including their decisions and orders related to closing businesses and schools, canceling travel, postponing elections, and sheltering citizens. Professor Desmarais and his two collaborators aim is to examine how the nature and timing of states’ decisions and orders are affected not only by cases of and deaths from the virus, but also by political and economic factors (e.g., partisanship of the governor, change in the state unemployment rate) and the choices made by neighboring states.