Policy criticism
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Mar 20, 2025 · Posts on X (state legislators) · policy criticism; policy discussion; Housing and Community Development · Source

Attendance 84%; the average within the Rhode Island House is 90.9%. Ranks 67th of 74, where 1st has the highest attendance. 1,359 roll calls in the RI 2025–26 session.
Attendance is the share of the roll calls Cruz could vote on where a yea, nay or present was recorded, ranked within the Rhode Island House. A missed vote has many causes, from illness to campaigning; the number says how often, not why.
6 measures against the Rhode Island House. 23% of the 421 bills Cruz sponsored got out of committee, in the bottom tenth of the Rhode Island House. Cruz reported $12.3K in the 2026 cycle, in the bottom half of State House Democrats (median $40.4K).
The measures on which Cruz sits furthest from the middle of the Rhode Island House, each against the same group, with the CSIP score when there is one. Every number is explained in its own section below.
Attendance
Rhode Island House average 90.9% · ranks 67th of 74 · 1,359 roll calls
Out of committee
Rhode Island House average 39% · ranks 68th of 74
Itemized, 2026
State House Democrats’ median $40.4K · ranks 1555th of 2,082
CSIP ideology
More liberal than 66% of State House Democrats · ± 0.07
Party unity
Rhode Island House average 94.0% · ranks 47th of 74 · 25 votes against the majority of Rhode Island House Democrats
From Rhode Island, 2026
Of itemized individual dollars · ranks 898th of 1,983 State House Democrats
Peer group: Rhode Island House. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; the thick bar is Cruz, the thin grey bar the peer average. The headline is the measure on which Cruz is most unusual among peers (Methods, §08).
Cruz stresses bipartisanship less than 88% of State House Democrats. Bipartisanship in 0% of 43 statements, against 2.9% for the average State House Democrat; 676th of 764.
An AI model reads each of Cruz’s 43 statements in the RI 2025–26 session (43 posts on X) and marks the kinds of statement it contains: a personal attack, criticism of a policy, discussion of policy, bipartisanship, credit claiming, and extreme labels. A statement can carry several. Every rate is compared with the average for State House Democrats and ranked among them.
Share of statements carrying each label, the RI 2025–26 session
| Row | Cruz | Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Policy discussion | 23% | 39% |
| Policy criticism | 9% | 10% |
| Credit claiming | 9% | 14% |
| Personal attacks | 0% | 3% |
| Bipartisanship | 0% | 3% |
statements classified
43 posts on X.
| Part | Value |
|---|---|
| posts on X | 43 |
The thick bar is Cruz; the thin grey bar is the average State House Democrats. A longer thick bar means Cruz does this more than peers. Rank 1 is the highest rate in the group.
Cruz used no extreme labels in 43 statements. The peer average is 1.0%.
No extreme labels in this window.
Targets named alongside an extreme label, by number of statements
No targets recorded.
Calls a politician, a party or a policy “far left”, “far right”, “MAGA”, “extreme”, “radical”, “woke”, “fascist” or “communist”. The target is who or what the label was aimed at. The lists show the five most used labels and targets; the toggle shows the rest.
Share of statements per month, the RI 2025–26 session
No month in this window has 10 or more statements, too few to chart month by month.
Each row is one kind of statement; each cell is a month, shaded against that row’s own peak (darker = closer to the peak), with the peak and the latest value written at the right. The top row counts statements. The strip covers every month of the RI 2025–26 session, the same span as the rates above, including months with no statements. A month with fewer than 10 statements is hatched, not shaded: one or two posts would swing its rate to 0% or 100%. 22 months are hatched here; 9 of them have no statements.
Real statements from the classifier’s example set, with the labels it assigned
Policy criticism
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Mar 20, 2025 · Posts on X (state legislators) · policy criticism; policy discussion; Housing and Community Development · Source
Credit claiming
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Jun 21, 2025 · Posts on X (state legislators) · credit claiming · Source
Policy discussion
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Nov 23, 2025 · Posts on X (state legislators) · policy criticism; policy discussion; Housing and Community Development · Source
Up to five recent statements in each category
Overtly questions a named person’s character, integrity or loyalty, or calls them names. Criticising a record or a policy does not count.
No statements in this category in this window.
Newest first, the RI 2025–26 session
Five statements at a time, newest first; filters apply to the statements loaded so far. Export saves the statements that match. Sources: 43 posts on X.
Housing and Community Development is what Cruz talks about most: 70% of policy statements, 11.3 times the peer share. Peers give it 6.2%. Agreement with legislation needs at least 20 policy statements and 5 bills.
Each policy statement is tagged by the AI model with one or more of 25 policy areas from the Congressional Research Service list, so the shares say what Cruz talks about. The bills Cruz sponsors and cosponsors carry the same areas, so the two can be compared.
Share of policy statements by area, the RI 2025–26 session
| Row | Cruz | Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Housing and Community Development | 70% | 6% |
| Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues | 10% | 10% |
| Education | 10% | 15% |
| Public Lands and Natural Resources | 10% | 1% |
| Agriculture and Food | 0% | 5% |
The thick bar is the share of Cruz’s policy statements in an area; the thin grey bar is the average share for State House Democrats. A statement counts once in each of its areas, so shares can add to more than 100%. The five largest areas are shown; the toggle shows the rest.
Left: share of statements by policy area. Right: share of bills. Areas in order of their share of statements; both sides run from 0 to 77%. Grey ticks are the State House Democrats averages.
| Area | Talks about | State House Democrats, talks about | Legislates on | State House Democrats, legislates on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Housing and Community Development | 70% | 6% | 11% | 5% |
| Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues | 10% | 10% | 4% | 4% |
| Education | 10% | 15% | 8% | 10% |
| Public Lands and Natural Resources | 10% | 1% | 0% | 2% |
| Agriculture and Food | 0% | 5% | 2% | 3% |
No agreement score.Needs at least 20 policy statements and 5 bills in the window.
Agreement is 1 minus the distance between the two distributions (Jensen–Shannon): 1 means Cruz legislates on exactly the areas Cruz talks about, in the same proportions; 0 means no overlap. It does not say whether the bills match the positions in the statements, only the subjects. Bills Cruz sponsored count fully, cosponsored bills a quarter. Shown with at least 20 policy statements and 5 bills.
Cruz sits at −0.72 on the CSIP scale, left of 0, more liberal than 66% of State House Democrats. Approximate range −0.79 to −0.66, which understates the uncertainty; from 144 donors and 555 roll calls.
CSIP, the lab’s Common-Space Ideal Point, places every official, federal and state, on one left–right scale, estimated from roll-call votes, who gives money to whom, and the text of statements. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it; 0 is the centre of the scale, not a definition of “moderate”.
CSIP ideal point
Approximate range −0.79 to −0.66. From 144 donors and 555 roll calls. Run 2026-10-25T215945. Blue is left of 0, red right of 0.
The outlined dot is Cruz, coloured by its side of 0 (blue left, red right, deeper further out); the bar through it is the approximate range (±1.96 standard errors), which understates the uncertainty; the grey ticks below are the medians of Cruz’s groups. 0 is the centre of the scale, not “moderate” by definition.
The score summarises how an official votes, who funds them and how they talk, relative to everyone else. It does not grade positions as good or bad, and two officials with the same score can differ on any single issue. The ± range is 1.96 standard errors, which understates the uncertainty: scores whose ranges overlap may not differ at all, and even scores whose ranges do not overlap may not differ.
Every official in each group, on the CSIP scale
| Group | Officials | Median | Share left of Cruz |
|---|---|---|---|
| State House Democrats | 2392 | −0.6 | 34% |
| Rhode Island House | 74 | −0.7 | 50% |
| All State House | 5324 | +0.1 | 15% |
Every small dot is one official on the same scale, coloured by its own score (blue left of 0, red right of 0, grey at 0, deeper further out) and spread up and down only to keep dots apart; where a group is crowded the dots overlap, and darker patches mean more officials. The large outlined dot is Cruz in every row; the rule is each group’s median. The table under the figure gives the share of each group to the left of Cruz.
Cruz reported $12.3K in the 2026 cycle, 30% of the State House Democrats’ median of $40.4K. State filings report no small-donation total. 94% of itemized individual money came from Rhode Island.
Campaign money from state campaign-finance filings, as aggregates only; the lab never shows an individual donor. Campaigns must report by name every person who gives them more than $200 in a cycle (“itemized”); smaller gifts are reported only as one total (“unitemized”), so donor counts, donor states, employers and occupations describe itemized donors only. State filings report no small-gift total, so these figures add up itemized contributions only.
itemized in the 2026 cycle
From 32 itemized donors. State House Democrats’ median $40.4K.
Each square is one percent of itemized contributions in the 2026 cycle.
| Source | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Individuals (itemized) | $10.6K | 86.7% |
| PACs and other committees | $1,625 | 13.3% |
Totals say how much a campaign took in, not how it was spent, and they rise sharply when a seat is up for election; compare cycles with that in mind.
Itemized contributions, 2022 to 2026. The grey line is the State House Democrats’ median for 2026.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2022 cycle | $16.9K |
| 2024 cycle | $34.1K |
| 2026 cycle | $12.3K |
Itemized contributions by donor state. 94% came from Rhode Island.
State filings report no total for small gifts.
Not reported in state filings.
Individuals who gave more than $200, by donor state
| State | Value |
|---|---|
| Rhode Island | $10.0K |
| Massachusetts | $625 |
| Alaska | No data |
| Maine | No data |
| Vermont | No data |
| New Hampshire | No data |
| Washington | No data |
| Idaho | No data |
| Montana | No data |
| North Dakota | No data |
| Minnesota | No data |
| Illinois | No data |
| Wisconsin | No data |
| Michigan | No data |
| New York | No data |
| Oregon | No data |
| Nevada | No data |
| Wyoming | No data |
| South Dakota | No data |
| Iowa | No data |
| Indiana | No data |
| Ohio | No data |
| Pennsylvania | No data |
| New Jersey | No data |
| Connecticut | No data |
| California | No data |
| Utah | No data |
| Colorado | No data |
| Nebraska | No data |
| Missouri | No data |
| Kentucky | No data |
| West Virginia | No data |
| Virginia | No data |
| Maryland | No data |
| Delaware | No data |
| Arizona | No data |
| New Mexico | No data |
| Kansas | No data |
| Arkansas | No data |
| Tennessee | No data |
| North Carolina | No data |
| South Carolina | No data |
| District of Columbia | No data |
| Oklahoma | No data |
| Louisiana | No data |
| Mississippi | No data |
| Alabama | No data |
| Georgia | No data |
| Hawaii | No data |
| Texas | No data |
| Florida | No data |
itemized donors
People who gave more than $200
from Rhode Island
Of itemized individual dollars
Every state the same size. Darker states gave more itemized money; hatched states had no itemized donors; the outlined state is Rhode Island. Gifts of $200 or less carry no address and are left out.
Itemized, 2026 cycle.
No occupations reported.
PAC and committee contributions, 2026 cycle.
Itemized, 2026 cycle.
No employers reported.
Aggregates only. Individual donors are never named.
Cruz voted with the majority of Rhode Island House Democrats on 96.1% of party-line votes and missed 16% of 1,359 roll calls. Rhode Island House on average: 94.0% party unity, 90.9% attendance. Across all roll calls, Cruz voted against the majority of Rhode Island House Democrats 25 times.
1,359 roll calls Cruz could vote on in the RI 2025–26 session, compared with Rhode Island House. Attendance is the share with a vote recorded. Party unity counts only party-line roll calls, where most Democrats and most Republicans voted on opposite sides, and is the share of those where Cruz voted with the majority of Rhode Island House Democrats. The count of votes against that majority covers every roll call where the majority took a side.
votes against the majority of Rhode Island House Democrats
Party unity 96.1%, Rhode Island House average 94.0%, ranks 47th of 74. 1,359 roll calls in the RI 2025–26 session.
The thick bar is Cruz, the thin grey bar the Rhode Island House average. The scale runs from 80% to 100% to show the gap.
| Row | Cruz | Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance | 84% | 90.9% |
| Party unity | 96.1% | 94.0% |
A missed roll call has many causes, from illness to campaigning, so attendance says how often, not why. A vote against the majority can be on procedure as well as substance, and many fall on roll calls where both parties split; the key votes below show the ones that decided something.
25 roll calls the lab flagged as key in the RI 2025–26 session
| Party split (yea–nay) | Why it’s key | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 11, 2026 | Yea | With majority | pass | D 57–0 · R 10–0 · I 1–0Democrats 57 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 10 yea, 0 nay; Independents 1 yea, 0 nay | became law | |
| Jun 11, 2026 | HR 8351 JOINT RESOLUTION CREATING A SPECIAL JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMISSION TO STUDY RHODE ISLAND'S EDUCATION FUNDING FORMULA AND EDUCATION FINANCE SYSTEM PASSAGE OF AMENDMENT | Yea | With majority | pass | D 52–0 · R 9–0 · I 1–0Democrats 52 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 9 yea, 0 nay; Independents 1 yea, 0 nay | became law |
| Jun 11, 2026 | SB 3358 AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF CRANSTON TO FINANCE THE ACQUISITION, IMPROVEMENT, RENOVATION AND REPAIR OF FIRE AND PUBLIC SAFETY EQUIPMENT BY THE ISSUANCE OF NOT MORE THAN $8,000,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS AND NOTES THEREFOR IN CONCURRENCE | Yea | With majority | pass | D 57–0 · R 10–0 · I 1–0Democrats 57 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 10 yea, 0 nay; Independents 1 yea, 0 nay | became law |
| Jun 11, 2026 | Yea | With majority | pass | D 57–0 · R 10–0 · I 1–0Democrats 57 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 10 yea, 0 nay; Independents 1 yea, 0 nay | became law | |
| Jun 11, 2026 | Yea | With majority | pass | D 55–0 · R 10–0 · I 1–0Democrats 55 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 10 yea, 0 nay; Independents 1 yea, 0 nay | became law |
Automatically: a final-passage or override vote where the measure became law, the margin was under 10%, at least 10% of either party voted against its majority, or the bill was among the 25 most mentioned in officials’ own statements. Up to 25 per window, most recent first; five are shown. Bars show yea on the left, nay on the right, per party.
The colleagues who voted the same way as Cruz most often
The colleagues who voted the same way as Cruz least often
The share of roll calls both members voted on where they voted the same way, among colleagues sharing at least 50 such votes. High agreement with members of the other party is common on routine votes.
RI 2025–26 session, loads in batches
Cruz sponsored 421 bills in the RI 2025–26 session; 45 became law. Cosponsored 0 others. 23% of sponsored bills got out of committee (Rhode Island House average 39%; 68th of 74).
The bills Cruz sponsored and cosponsored in the RI 2025–26 session, from the official bill records, and how far each got: introduced, referred to or acted on in committee, passed one chamber, passed both, became law. A bill counts at every stage it has reached, so the blocks only shrink to the right.
Counts for the RI 2025–26 session
| Role | Introduced | In committee | Passed one chamber | Passed both chambers | Became law |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored | 421 | 421 | 97 | 45 | 45 |
| Cosponsored | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ink blocks are bills Cruz sponsored, ochre blocks bills Cruz cosponsored; the figure above each block is the count. Most bills in any legislature never leave committee, so a short staircase is the norm.
of sponsored bills got out of committee
Rhode Island House average 39%. Ranks 68th of 74.
Colleagues who most often cosponsor with Cruz, by number of shared bills in the RI 2025–26 session; the square shows their party.
The score is the share of sponsored bills that a committee reported out or a chamber passed, with at least 5 sponsored bills, ranked within the peer group. Members of the majority party and committee chairs move more bills, so the rank reflects position in the chamber as well as effort. Cosponsorship partners are the five colleagues who share the most of Cruz’s bills; the toggle shows more.
Sponsored and cosponsored, with status and policy area; five are shown, the toggle shows the rest
| HR 8638 | HOUSE RESOLUTION HONORING REPRESENTATIVE DAVID MORALES FOR HIS SERVICE TO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND | Sponsor | Jun 11, 2026 | Passed one chamber | Unassigned | 06/11/2026 House read and passed Jun 11, 2026 |
| HR 8619 | HOUSE RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING THE MONTH OF JUNE 2026 AS "PRIDE MONTH" IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND | Sponsor | Jun 4, 2026 | Passed one chamber | Unassigned | 06/04/2026 House read and passed Jun 4, 2026 |
| HB 8591 | AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF PAWTUCKET TO PROVIDE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION, RECONSTRUCTION, REPAIR AND EQUIPPING OF BRIDGES AND ALL COSTS INCIDENTAL OR RELATED THERETO AND AUTHORIZING THE FINANCING THEREOF, INCLUDING THE ISSUE OF NOT MORE THAN $2,000,000 BONDS AND NOTES THEREFOR, TO FUND THE CAPITAL I | Sponsor | May 27, 2026 | Became law | Transportation and Public Works(model) | 06/23/2026 Signed by Governor Jun 23, 2026 |
| HB 8594 | AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF PAWTUCKET TO PROVIDE FOR THE REPAVING OF STREETS IN THE CITY AND AUTHORIZING THE FINANCING THEREOF, INCLUDING THE ISSUE OF NOT MORE THAN $3,000,000 BONDS AND NOTES THEREFOR, TO FUND THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM FOR THE TWO FISCAL YEARS 2028 AND 2029 | Sponsor | May 27, 2026 | Became law | Transportation and Public Works(model) | 06/23/2026 Signed by Governor Jun 23, 2026 |
| HB 8588 | AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF PAWTUCKET TO PROVIDE FOR THE PLANNING, EVALUATION, DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, EQUIPPING AND RECONSTRUCTION OF SANITARY SEWERS AND STORM SEWERS IN THE CITY AND AUTHORIZING THE FINANCING THEREOF, INCLUDING THE ISSUE OF NOT MORE THAN $4,000,000 BONDS AND NOTES THEREFOR, TO FUN | Sponsor | May 27, 2026 | Became law | Water Resources Development(model) | 06/23/2026 Signed by Governor Jun 23, 2026 |
A site that has not changed in 90 days. Cruz’s official site had 1 page when last crawled on Oct 1, 2026.
The lab crawls Cruz’s official and campaign websites (weekly for Congress, monthly for the states) and keeps every page’s text, so changes can be read later; it also records social accounts and describes the images Cruz posts with a vision model.
Official site
www.rilegislature.gov/representatives/cruz/Pages/Biography.aspxLast crawled Oct 1, 2026
pages crawled
changes in 90 days
pages crawled
changes in 90 days
“Pages crawled” is the size of the site at the last crawl; “changes in 90 days” counts pages whose text differed from the previous crawl. Sites change for many routine reasons, such as new press releases, so a high count is not by itself notable.
No images from Cruz’s posts have been described.
Written by a vision model and may be wrong. Open the post to see the original. Five are shown; the toggle shows the rest.
7 turns, Mar 24, 2026 to Jun 11, 2026
Transcribed from chamber video or captions by the lab. They are not classified for kinds of statement.
How this page was made. Profile built Oct 28, 2026; site last built Oct 28, 2026. Every number on the page is computed from the sources listed here, by the same rules for every official; nothing is written by hand.
The headline is the measure on which Cruz is most unusual among Rhode Island House, chosen by one rule for every official of every party. The candidates are the rate of each kind of statement and of extreme labels, party unity, attendance, the small-donor share, the in-state share and total receipts of the latest cycle, the share of sponsored bills that got out of committee, talk-to-bills agreement, and the CSIP score’s place within the party group.
The builder ranks every measure within the same peer group the page compares it with, and writes each official’s percentile: the share of the group below the value, ties counting half, so 0.5 is the median and a value shared by many never ranks first. A measure’s score is how far that percentile sits from the median (0 in the middle, 0.5 at either end), and the highest score leads if it is above 0.25, outside the middle half of the group. Scores within 0.03 of each other are a tie, broken in this order: votes against the party majority, kinds of statement, ideology, roll calls missed, small donations, in-state money, legislation, agreement, extreme labels, receipts.
A measure counts only with at least 200 statements, 100 roll calls or 5 sponsored bills behind it and a peer group of at least 10. Two things never lead: high party unity or attendance, where most members sit, and a high rate of a kind of statement backed by fewer than 10 statements. When nothing qualifies, the headline is a neutral fact instead: statements classified, or years in office. The wording always names the direction (“in the bottom 5% of …”, “votes against the majority of …”).
Bulk files with the same data for every official:
America’s Political Pulse · Polarization Research Lab