Interest groups from across America’s ideological spectrum create candidate scorecards and voter guides that help citizens compare leaders’ voting records on key issues.
This election cycle, voters can review state and national candidates’ positions on the environment, working people, civil rights, gun violence and other issues.
A growing number of conservative activist groups create scorecards they claim to be Christian or “biblical” and distribute in churches and make available online. These guides examine a much narrower range of issues and conclude uncompromisingly conservative Republican candidates are the best match for believers’ values.
As Reformed theologian Michael Horton pointed out in 2007, the scorecards relied on by many evangelical Christians consider only a short list of “pro-life, pro-family, pro-morality” issues while largely ignoring “racial discrimination, environmental disaster or piling up debt for future generations.”
“The problem comes when a whole series of specific policies are deduced, as if they were logically required by commitment to those values,” Horton wrote in a Modern Reformation blog post. “In a lot of these scorecards, for example, God has apparently declared himself in favor of a specific tax cut, a particular war, school prayer and a Constitutional ban on flag burning,” he noted.
One unique scorecard evaluates which legislators actually get the most bills passed while in office. The numbers show that members of Congress who are prized for making noise, appearing on conservative media, and raising millions of campaign dollars rank lowest in this measure of effectiveness.
The contrast between noisemakers and lawmakers is seen in two new scorecards from groups with different agendas.
The contrast between noisemakers and lawmakers is seen in two new scorecards from groups with different agendas: Family Research Council Action and The Lugar Center, which promotes bipartisanship.
The D.C.-based Family Research Council’s political arm, FRC Action, recently released its latest tally of the five U.S. Senators and 69 U.S. Representatives that scored 100 on its tally by voting in accordance with FRC Action’s positions on legislation opposing abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment and transgender medical care.
FRC Action, which is aligned with Focus on the Family, gave these Republican House members a perfect pro-family score:
- Paul Gosar (Ariz.)
- Andrew Clyde and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.)
- Mary Miller (Ill.)
- Andy Harris (Md.)
- Eric Burlison (Mo.)
- Dan Bishop (N.C.)
- George Santos, expelled from Congress following numerous scandals (N.Y.)
- Jim Jordan (Ohio)
- Josh Brecheen (Okla.)
- Scott Perry (Pa.)
- Andy Ogles (Tenn.)
- Chip Roy (Texas)
- Bob Good (Va.)
But these House members ranked among the least effective legislators according to the latest edition of the “Bipartisan Index” from The Lugar Center, founded by the late Richard Lugar, a Republican Senator from Indiana from 1977 to 2013.
The Bipartisan Index seeks to stand out from other scorecards:
“There are innumerable studies, rankings and indexes that grade members according to a partisan, parochial or special-interest standard,” The Lugar Center notes. “The Bipartisan Index measures the frequency with which a member co-sponsors a bill introduced by the opposite party and the frequency with which a member’s own bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party.”
The 2024 Bipartisan Index finds that “pro-family” House members are among the most combative — and least effective — members of the last two Congresses.
The 2024 Bipartisan Index finds that “pro-family” House members are among the most combative — and least effective — members of the last two Congresses, and the last two Congresses ranked as the least effective of the 11 Congresses the Lugar Center has studied.
Republican Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) was ranked the most bipartisan House member. Jim Jordan ranked last.
When it comes to the Senate, Republicans ranked both the most and least bipartisan: Susan Collins of Maine was No. 1, and Katie Britt of Alabama was last at No. 100.
Five Senators earned FRC Action’s perfect scores. The numbers show the Bipartisan Index for each:
- Mike Braun (In) 19
- Rand Paul (Ky.) 69
- J.D. Vance (Ohio) 77
- Josh Hawley (Mo.) 90
- Mike Lee (Utah) 92
FRC Action and the Lugar Center view Congress from differing perspectives.
FRC Action, which says it “is committed to ensuring that a biblical worldview has a voice on Capitol Hill and to working for public policies that foster a culture in which all human life is valued, families flourish and religious liberty thrives,” praised the resilience of its culture warriors.
“Those One Hundred Percent Award winners have stood strong in the face of determined and relentless attacks from the Left,” it said.
The Lugar Center focuses more on results than battle scars. It seeks to indicate whether “a legislator is viewing his or her duties through a partisan lens” or “a legislator prioritizing problem solving and open to working with the other party when possible.”
Voters can learn more about candidates and issues at these sites:
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