National Journal recently released their yearly ratings of Congressman and Senators and ordered them from most conservative to most liberal. To calculate their ratings, National Journal used key votes on economic issues, foreign issues and social issues. They used 97 votes from the Senate and 105 votes from the House to get a decent sample size by which they could gauge each member’s ideological leanings.
You can see below where Alabama’s delegation landed on the list. I’ve also included some other notable names to add some context.
Name (District): Conservative rank in the House (Lower number = More conservative)
Martha Roby (AL-02): 68
Robert Aderholt (AL-04): 87
Michelle Bachmann (MN-06): 101
Jo Bonner(AL-01): 138
Mo Brooks (AL-05): 140
Paul Ryan (Wis-01): 150
Allen West (FL-22): 174
Mike Rogers (AL-03): 177
Spencer Bachus (AL-06): 186
Ron Paul (TX-14): 239
Terri Sewell (AL-07): 266
In the Senate, Senator Jeff Sessions came in at number 11, just below Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Senator Shelby came in at number 26.
Illustrating the polarized state of the legislative branch, not a single Republican ranked below any Democrat on the Senate Conservative ranking. Of course, all of these rankings are subjective and their validity can be debated a million different ways. But if I’ve learned anything from publishing this site, it’s that people love lists. To read more about the National Journal rankings, click here.
