Claybourn is an attorney with the law firm of Jackson Kelly representing governmental entities and officials, as well as businesses and corporations. Citing Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, Claybourn appeared before the Indiana Election Commission and successfully challenged a 23-year-old person's legal right to appear on the ballot as a candidate for Congress in Indiana's 8th congressional district. He previously served as an adjunct professor of business law at the University of Evansville. Despite high-profile criticism of Donald Trump, members of his transition team sought Claybourn's interest in a legal role with the administration, suggesting his involvement would be "good for unity".
Historian and pundit
Much of Claybourn's scholarship focuses on Abraham Lincoln's youth in Indiana. He is a co-editor of Abe’s Youth: Shaping the Future President. He is a board member of both the Abraham Lincoln Association and Abraham Lincoln Institute, former chair of the Southern Indiana Civil War Roundtable, and former trustee and president of the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library. Claybourn is also editor of Our American Story: The Search for a Shared National Narrative, a collection of essays by theorists, historians, and politicians addressing the possibility of a shared narrative within a country divided by political polarization. Contributors to the project include Cass Sunstein, Gordon S. Wood, John Danforth, Richard Epstein, David Blight, Markos Moulitsas, Alan Taylor, Eleanor Clift, Jim Banks, Nikolas Gvosdev, Ilya Somin, Cherie Harder, Gerard Magliocca, Jason Kuznicki, Cody Delistraty, Spencer Boyer, Ali Wyne, and James Wertsch. Kirkus Reviews wrote that the book's "responses are all over the map, provocatively so..." Claybourn is an adjunct scholar with the Indiana Policy Review Foundation and his work has appeared in USA Today, The Hill, The Federalist, The American Spectator, National Review Online, American Thinker, and World Magazine, as well as regional publications such as the Indianapolis Star, Evansville Courier & Press, The News-Sentinel, and The Herald-Times. On television he has commented on current events on CNN, MSNBC, and NHK. Previously he was a blogger that radio talk show hostHugh Hewitt included among the "next generation of bloggers" and a reason "to be very optimistic about the future of the blogosphere." Claybourn is an outspoken advocate of home rule, a principle in Indiana and several other states that generally grants municipalities the power to govern themselves as they see fit.
Politics
Claybourn was cited as a "key supporter" of Congressman Larry Bucshon of. He was a principal adviser to Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke's campaign and was a part of Winnecke's 2012 transition team. He also served as a top adviser during Winnecke's successful 2015 re-election campaign, which made Winnecke the first Republican Evansville mayor to be re-elected in 40 years. In 2016, Claybourn was selected as an Indiana delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention. A day after Donald Trump's win in the Indiana primary which made Trump the party's presumptive nominee, Claybourn was one of the first to resign his position as a delegate because he "could not in good conscience attend a coronation and celebration of Donald Trump". The New York Times noted Mr. Claybourn would have been bound to vote for Mr. Trump on the first ballot, "a step he said he simply could not stomach". In a statement Claybourn said, "Donald J. Trump is the Republican Party's nominee. But he will not be my nominee, and I will not attend a convention celebrating his candidacy."
Publications
Claybourn, Joshua A., ed. Our American Story: The Search for a Shared National Narrative. Lincoln: Potomac Books, 2019.
Claybourn, Joshua A., ed. Born of Clay: The Story of the Claiborne · Claybourn · Clayborn Families in the United States. Evansville: Claybourn Genealogical Society, 2016.
