While public colleges and universities have a long history of engaging in the political process, relatively little is known about their activities. This study attempts to examine, both theoretically and empirically, the relationship between state economic, demographic, political, and policy contexts and state public higher education interest group density. This study applied a conceptual framework which borrowed heavily from the Energy-Stability-Area Model of state interest group systems and recent thinking regarding state higher education interest group systems. The empirical results provided general support for each aspect of the conceptual framework.