The American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF), host of the Conservative Political Action Conference (known as CPAC), released the 51st edition of its annual Ratings of Congress.
The scorecard, considered the “gold standard” for evaluating political ideology, includes an exhaustive compilation of over 20,000 votes cast last session by all 535 members of Congress across the full spectrum of policy issues.
In the scorecard, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan rates 79%, improving 5 points from 2020’s scorecard, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski is a 49% conservative, a drop of 3 points from the 2020 scorecard. The late Congressman Don Young was rated 54% in 2021, an increase of 2 points from 2021.
Sen. Dan Sullivan has been rated for seven years by the organization and has maintained a score in the 79% range. He was judged on 38 votes he took in 2021.
Sen. Dan Sullivan’s strongest issues:
- Human Dignity
- Government Integrity and Transparency
- Regulations
Sen. Dan Sullivan’s weakest issues:
- Taxes, Budget and Spending
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, now running for reelection, has been rated by the organization for 19 years. She was judged on the 38 votes she took in 2021. Her lifetime rating by the organization is 55.82%, but she has been steadily dropping over the years and is now trending blue.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s strongest issue:
- Second Amendment
Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s weakest issues:
- Government Integrity and Transparency
- Regulations
- Labor
- Taxes, Budget and Spending
- Human Dignity
The late Congressman Don Young, who died March 18, had been part of the scorecard for 49 years, and was judged on the 34 votes he took in 2021. His “lifetime rating” was 72.19% but he had dropped markedly in recent years on the conservative scorecard, with his votes in the blue-purple range.
Congressman Don Young’s strongest issues were:
- National Security
- Human Dignity
- Personal Liberty
- 2nd Amendment
- Property Rights
Congressman Don Young’s weakest issues were:
- Government Integrity and Transparency
- Law and Judiciary
- Welfare and Poverty
- Taxes, Budget and Spending
- Labor
Award for Conservative Excellence
74 Lawmakers earned the Award for Conservative Excellence
Conservative Ratings of 90% or above:
Rep. Jim Jordan (100%)
Sen. Rand Paul (100%)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (100%)*
Rep. Lauren Boebert (100%)*
Rep. Byron Donalds (100%)*
Sen. Mike Lee (97%)
Rep. Jim Banks (97%)
Sen. Ted Cruz (95%)
Rep. Ronny Jackson (95%)
Rep. Ken Buck (95%)
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (94%)
Rep. Matt Gaetz (92%)
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (92%)
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (92%)
Sen. Rick Scott (90%)
Nine freshmen earned 100% ratings, tying the 2007 Congress as the largest number of freshmen earning perfect scores since the 1994 Gingrich revolution.
View Other “Excellence” Awardees Here.
Award for Conservative Achievement
63 Lawmakers earned the Award for Conservative Achievement
Conservative Ratings of 80% or above:
Sen. Ron Johnson (89%)
Sen. Pat Toomey (86%)
Rep. Kevin Brady (86%)
Sen. Josh Hawley (85%)
Rep. Tom Rice (85%)
Whip. Steve Scalise (82%)
Sen. Tom Cotton (82%)
Sen. Tim Scott (82%)
Sen. Joni Ernst (82%)
View “Achievement” Awardees Here.
Conservative Ratings of 70% – 79%:
Sen. John Kennedy (79%)
Sen. Chuck Grassley (77%)
Sen. Marco Rubio (77%)
Rep. Elise Stefanik (77%)
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (76%)
Leader Kevin McCarthy (74%)
Sen. Ben Sasse (73%)
Rep. Liz Cheney (71%)
Conservative Ratings of 50% – 69%:
Sen. Bill Cassidy (67%)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (66%)
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (64%)
Leader Mitch McConnell (64%)
Sen. Rob Portman (59%)
Sen. Mitt Romney (56%)
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (56%)
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (51%)
Conservative Ratings of 20% – 49%:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (49%)
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (42%)
Sen. Susan Collins (41%)
Rep. Fred Upton (38%)
Sen. Joe Manchin (32%)
Sen. Jon Tester (21%)
Conservative Ratings of 10% – 19%:
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (16%)
Sen. Mark Kelly (13%)
Rep. Jason Crow (11%)
Rep. Bennie Thompson (10%)
Rep. Pete Aguilar (10%)
Leader. Steny Hoyer (10%)
Rep. Val Demings (10%)
Rep. Sharice Davids (10%)
Conservative Ratings of 5% – 9%:
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (8%)
Sen. Raphael Warnock (8%)
Rep. Eric Swalwell (8%)
Whip. Jim Clyburn (8%)
Rep. Mike Thompson (8%)
Sen. Jon Ossoff (5%)
Sen. Michael Bennet (5%)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (5%)
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (5%)
Rep. Connor Lamb (5%)
The Coalition of the Radical Left
92 Lawmakers placed in the Coalition of the Radical Left
Conservative Ratings of 0% – 4%:
Leader Chuck Schumer (3%)
Rep. Karen Bass (3%)
Sen. Cory Booker (3%)
Rep. Katie Porter (3%)
Rep. Jamie Raskin (3%)
Rep. Adam Schiff (3%)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (3%)
Rep. Ted Lieu (3%)
Rep. Maxine Waters (0%)
Rep. Mark Pocan (0%)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (0%)
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (0%)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (0%)
Rep. Ilhan Omar (0%)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (0%)
View the other “Radical Left” Here
The ratings have been incorporated into CPAC’s new Lawmaker Comparison Tool, which runs head-to-head comparisons on lawmakers’ strongest and weakest policy areas. The system has been deployed to help direct support to the most conservative candidates in the upcoming primary and general elections.
To produce this year’s scorecard, the ACUF’s Center for Legislative Accountability analyzed every vote taken last session, and selected a wide-array of issues relating to fiscal, tax, regulatory, education, defense, environment, Second Amendment rights, election security, life, and government integrity. All U.S. lawmakers at the federal and state levels are scored on a 100-point scale.
ACUF is the first and only organization in America to annually publish individual ratings for all 8,000 federal and state lawmakers in America. ACUF’s Center for Legislative Accountability is also home to the nation’s most comprehensive conservative policy database containing over 17,500 detailed bill analyses which span 50 years of Congress and all 50 state legislatures.
