Policy criticism
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Jun 13, 2026 · Posts on X (state legislators) · policy criticism; policy discussion; Immigration · Source
5.5×
the State House Republican rate of extreme labels
7.9% of 215 statements use an extreme label (17 statements); the average for State House Republicans is 1.4%. Ranks 18th of 791, where 1st is the highest rate. Most often aimed at MAGA.
An AI model reads each of Bentley’s posts on X and marks whether it calls a politician, party or policy far left, far right, MAGA, extreme, radical, woke, fascist or communist. The rate is the share of statements marked; it is compared with the average among State House Republicans and ranked against the same group.
At a glance
6 measures against State House Republicans. 24% of Bentley’s statements claim credit, 1.9 times the State House Republican average of 13%. 100% of Bentley’s itemized money in the 2026 cycle came from Arkansas, in the top quarter of State House Republicans.
The measures on which Bentley sits furthest from the middle of State House Republicans, each against the same group, with the CSIP score when there is one. Every number is explained in its own section below.
Extreme labels
7.9%
State House Republicans average 1.4% · ranks 18th of 791
Credit claiming
24%
State House Republicans average 13% · ranks 119th of 791
From Arkansas, 2026
100%
Of itemized individual dollars · ranks 392nd of 2,335 State House Republicans
Out of committee
79%
Arkansas House average 56% · ranks 13th of 81
Bipartisanship
3.3%
State House Republicans average 1.8% · ranks 152nd of 791
CSIP ideology
+0.18
More liberal than 77% of State House Republicans · ± 0.03
Peer group: State House Republicans. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; the thick bar is Bentley, the thin grey bar the peer average. The headline is the measure on which Bentley is most unusual among peers (Methods, §08).
What Bentley says
Bentley attacks opponents personally about as often as the median State House Republican. Personal attacks in 0.9% of 215 statements, against 2.9% for the average State House Republican; 405th of 791.
An AI model reads each of Bentley’s 215 statements in the AR 2025–26 session (215 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 Republicans and ranked among them.
Kinds of statement
Share of statements carrying each label, the AR 2025–26 session
0%80%
Bentley
Peers
Rank
Policy discussion84 statements
39%
32%
279th of 791
Credit claiming52 statements
24%
13%
119th of 791
Policy criticism10 statements
5%
9%
469th of 791
Bipartisanship7 statements
3%
2%
152nd of 791
Personal attacks2 statements
1%
3%
405th of 791
Show the data
| Row | Bentley | Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Policy discussion | 39% | 32% |
| Credit claiming | 24% | 13% |
| Policy criticism | 5% | 9% |
| Bipartisanship | 3% | 2% |
| Personal attacks | 1% | 3% |
215
statements classified
215 posts on X.
Show the data
| Part | Value |
|---|---|
| posts on X | 215 |
How to read the bars
The thick bar is Bentley; the thin grey bar is the average State House Republicans. A longer thick bar means Bentley does this more than peers. Rank 1 is the highest rate in the group.
Extreme labels
Bentley used extreme labels in 7.9% of statements, 5.5 times the peer average. 17 statements, most often aimed at MAGA; peers 1.4%.
- “MAGA”12
- “communist”1
- “woke”1
Who gets the labels
Targets named alongside an extreme label, by number of statements
- MAGA3
What an extreme label is
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.
Month by month
Share of statements per month, the AR 2025–26 session
Show the data
| Column | Statements | Personal attacks | Policy criticism | Policy discussion | Bipartisanship | Credit claiming | Extreme labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan ’25 | 6 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Feb ’25 | 24 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 41.7% | 8.3% | 37.5% | 8.3% |
| Mar ’25 | 8 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Apr ’25 | 26 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 19.2% | 7.7% | 42.3% | 0.0% |
| May ’25 | 20 | 5.0% | 5.0% | 45.0% | 5.0% | 30.0% | 20.0% |
| Jun ’25 | 40 | 0.0% | 5.0% | 57.5% | 2.5% | 17.5% | 5.0% |
| Jul ’25 | 18 | 0.0% | 11.1% | 38.9% | 5.6% | 33.3% | 5.6% |
| Aug ’25 | 10 | 0.0% | 10.0% | 50.0% | 0.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% |
| Sep ’25 | 10 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 20.0% | 10.0% |
| Oct ’25 | 10 | 0.0% | 10.0% | 10.0% | 0.0% | 10.0% | 10.0% |
| Nov ’25 | 4 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Dec ’25 | 0 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Jan ’26 | 3 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Feb ’26 | 5 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Mar ’26 | 6 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Apr ’26 | 0 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| May ’26 | 6 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Jun ’26 | 6 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Jul ’26 | 7 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Aug ’26 | 5 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Sep ’26 | 1 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
| Oct ’26 | 0 | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) | — (fewer than 10 statements) |
How to read the strips
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 AR 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%. 14 months are hatched here; 3 of them have no statements.
In Bentley’s words
Real statements from the classifier’s example set, with the labels it assigned
Personal attacks
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Jul 2, 2026 · Posts on X (state legislators) · personal attacks; target: Tim Walz · Source
Extreme label
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Nov 19, 2025 · Posts on X (state legislators) · extreme label “MAGA” aimed at MAGA · Source
Examples by category
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.
All 215 statements
Newest first, the AR 2025–26 session
The full feed
Five statements at a time, newest first; filters apply to the statements loaded so far. Export saves the statements that match. Sources: 215 posts on X.
Policy
Health is what Bentley talks about most: 42% of policy statements, 4.1 times the peer share. Talk and legislation agree at 0.55 on a 0–1 scale (State House Republicans average 0.53; 227th of 504).
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 Bentley talks about. The bills Bentley sponsors and cosponsors carry the same areas, so the two can be compared.
What Bentley talks about
Share of policy statements by area, the AR 2025–26 session
0%46%
Bentley
Peers
Health35 statements
42%
10%
Agriculture and Food19 statements
23%
4%
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues11 statements
13%
6%
Families8 statements
10%
4%
Education5 statements
6%
15%
Show the data
| Row | Bentley | Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 42% | 10% |
| Agriculture and Food | 23% | 4% |
| Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues | 13% | 6% |
| Families | 10% | 4% |
| Education | 6% | 15% |
How to read the bars
The thick bar is the share of Bentley’s policy statements in an area; the thin grey bar is the average share for State House Republicans. 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.
Talks about · legislates on
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 46%. Grey ticks are the State House Republicans averages.
Show the data
| Area | Talks about | State House Republicans, talks about | Legislates on | State House Republicans, legislates on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health | 42% | 10% | 39% | 10% |
| Agriculture and Food | 23% | 4% | 3% | 3% |
| Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues | 13% | 6% | 12% | 4% |
| Families | 10% | 4% | 4% | 2% |
| Education | 6% | 15% | 8% | 9% |
0.55
talk-to-bills agreement, 0 to 1
State House Republicans average 0.53. Ranks 227th of 504.
What agreement means, and what it doesn’t
Agreement is 1 minus the distance between the two distributions (Jensen–Shannon): 1 means Bentley legislates on exactly the areas Bentley 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 Bentley sponsored count fully, cosponsored bills a quarter. Shown with at least 20 policy statements and 5 bills.
Ideology
Bentley sits at +0.18 on the CSIP scale, right of 0, more liberal than 77% of State House Republicans. Approximate range +0.15 to +0.21, which understates the uncertainty; from 205 donors and 814 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”.
+0.18
CSIP ideal point
Approximate range +0.15 to +0.21. From 205 donors and 814 roll calls. Run 2026-10-25T215945. Blue is left of 0, red right of 0.
The outlined dot is Bentley, 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 Bentley’s groups. 0 is the centre of the scale, not “moderate” by definition.
What this means, and what it doesn’t
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.
Where Bentley sits
Every official in each group, on the CSIP scale
State House Republicans2,917 · median +0.4
Arkansas House97 · median +0.1
All State House5,324 · median +0.1
Show the data
| Group | Officials | Median | Share left of Bentley |
|---|---|---|---|
| State House Republicans | 2917 | +0.4 | 23% |
| Arkansas House | 97 | +0.1 | 71% |
| All State House | 5324 | +0.1 | 57% |
How to read the strips
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 Bentley 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 Bentley.
Money
Bentley reported $68.3K in the 2026 cycle, 2.0 times the State House Republicans’ median of $33.7K. State filings report no small-donation total. 100% of itemized individual money came from Arkansas.
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.
$68.3K
itemized in the 2026 cycle
From 54 itemized donors. State House Republicans’ median $33.7K.
Where the money came from
Each square is one percent of itemized contributions in the 2026 cycle.
- Individuals (itemized)36 squares$24.7K
- PACs and other committees53 squares$36.1K
- Party committees11 squares$7,500
Show the data
| Source | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Individuals (itemized) | $24.7K | 36.2% |
| PACs and other committees | $36.1K | 52.8% |
| Party committees | $7,500 | 11.0% |
What this means, and what it doesn’t
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.
Receipts by cycle
Itemized contributions, 2020 to 2026. The grey line is the State House Republicans’ median for 2026.
Show the data
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2020 cycle | $26.8K |
| 2022 cycle | $48.2K |
| 2024 cycle | $86.6K |
| 2026 cycle | $68.3K |
Top donor states, 2026
Itemized contributions by donor state. 100% came from Arkansas.
- Arkansas$24.7K
Small donations
State filings report no total for small gifts.
Not reported in state filings.
Where itemized donors live
Individuals who gave more than $200, by donor state
Show the data
| State | Value |
|---|---|
| Arkansas | $24.7K |
| 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 |
| Rhode Island | No data |
| Massachusetts | 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 |
| 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 |
54
itemized donors
People who gave more than $200
100%
from Arkansas
Of itemized individual dollars
How to read the map
Every state the same size. Darker states gave more itemized money; hatched states had no itemized donors; the outlined state is Arkansas. Gifts of $200 or less carry no address and are left out.
Top donor occupations
Itemized, 2026 cycle.
- HEALTHCARE / MEDICAL$10.0K 12 donors
- RETIRED$3,360 11 donors
- FINANCIAL / INVESTMENT$1,550 5 donors
- CLERGY / FAITH-BASED$1,250 4 donors
- CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING$1,100 3 donors
Top committees
PAC and committee contributions, 2026 cycle.
- ARKANSAS HEALTH CARE HOUSE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE$3,500
- REPUBLICAN PARTY OF ARKANSAS(STATE)$3,500
- FAULKNER COUNTY REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE$3,100
- BI-PARTISAN STRATEGIES PAC$2,913
- ARKANSAS REALTORS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE$2,500
Top employers
Itemized, 2026 cycle.
No employers reported.
Aggregates only. Individual donors are never named.
Votes
No roll-call votes for the AR 2025–26 session.No roll-call votes are recorded for this official in this time window.
Legislation
Bentley sponsored 33 bills in the AR 2025–26 session; 22 became law. Cosponsored 70 others. 79% of sponsored bills got out of committee (Arkansas House average 56%; 13th of 81).
The bills Bentley sponsored and cosponsored in the AR 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.
Bills by stage
Counts for the AR 2025–26 session
Show the data
| Role | Introduced | In committee | Passed one chamber | Passed both chambers | Became law |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored | 33 | 33 | 26 | 22 | 22 |
| Cosponsored | 70 | 70 | 49 | 47 | 46 |
How to read the blocks
Ink blocks are bills Bentley sponsored, ochre blocks bills Bentley cosponsored; the figure above each block is the count. Most bills in any legislature never leave committee, so a short staircase is the norm.
79%
of sponsored bills got out of committee
Arkansas House average 56%. Ranks 13th of 81.
Cosponsorship partners
Colleagues who most often cosponsor with Bentley, by number of shared bills in the AR 2025–26 session; the square shows their party.
- Alyssa Brown17
- Missy Irvin14
- Karilyn Brown14
- DeAnn Vaught13
- Julie Mayberry12
What this means, and what it doesn’t
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 Bentley’s bills; the toggle shows more.
Bill list
Sponsored and cosponsored, with status and policy area; five are shown, the toggle shows the rest
| HB 1001 | TO REDUCE THE INCOME TAX RATES FOR INDIVIDUALS, TRUSTS, ESTATES, AND CORPORATIONS. | Cosponsor | May 1, 2026 | Became law | Taxation(model) | Notification that HB1001 is now Act 1 May 6, 2026 |
| HB 1103 | TO INCREASE THE HOMESTEAD PROPERTY TAX CREDIT. | Cosponsor | Apr 21, 2026 | Passed both chambers | Taxation(model) | Correctly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's Office. Apr 28, 2026 |
| HB 1080 | AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES - DIVISION OF DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES SERVICES - JONESBORO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT CENTER APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Cosponsor | Apr 9, 2026 | In committee | Health(model) | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. Apr 29, 2026 |
| HB 1995 | TO SEPARATE THE OFFICES OF SHERIFF AND TAX COLLECTOR IN PERRY COUNTY. | Sponsor | Apr 7, 2025 | Became law | Government Operations and Politics(model) | Notification that HB1995 is now Act 985 Apr 22, 2025 |
| HMR 1012 | TO REMEMBER HETTIE LUE BROOKS AS AN ARKANSAS LEGEND WHO POSITIVELY IMPACTED THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS OF ARKANSANS AS WELL AS PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD. | Sponsor | Apr 7, 2025 | In committee | Unassigned | READ AND ADOPTED. Apr 10, 2025 |
Online
A site that changed 3 times in 90 days. Bentley’s official site had 1 page when last crawled on Oct 1, 2026.
The lab crawls Bentley’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 Bentley posts with a vision model.
Websites
- 1
pages crawled
3changes in 90 days
- 3
pages crawled
1changes in 90 days
How to read the counts
“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.
Social accounts
Images Bentley posted
No images from Bentley’s posts have been described.
About the descriptions
Written by a vision model and may be wrong. Open the post to see the original. Five are shown; the toggle shows the rest.
State floor speeches
118 turns, Jan 26, 2021 to Apr 16, 2025
Floor speeches
Transcribed from chamber video or captions by the lab. They are not classified for kinds of statement.
Methods and sources
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
The headline is the measure on which Bentley is most unusual among State House Republicans, 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 …”).
Identifiers
- Profile id
- 7e778aa7-3d02-4d6c-9373-42470990fdea
- Open States
- ocd-person/7e778aa7-3d02-4d6c-9373-42470990fdea
Bulk files with the same data for every official:
Freshness of this profile’s data
- What politicians sayOct 27, 20261 days agoMembers of Congress: tweets since 2017; press releases, newsletters and floor speeches since 2022. State legislators: tweets since May 2024. Governors: tweets since January 2025. Labels from an LLM classifier.
- Roll calls (state)Oct 21, 20267 days agoOpen States floor roll calls, 2019 on (none for AK and MO).
- Bills (state)Oct 28, 2026todayOpen States bills and sponsors, 2019 on; stages from roll calls.
- Campaign money (state)no dateState campaign-finance agencies, 2019 on; aggregates only.
- Ideology (CSIP)Oct 25, 20263 days agoCommon-Space Ideal Points (CSIP), current validated run.
- WebsitesOct 25, 20263 days agoWeekly crawls of federal sites since April 2026; monthly state crawls since June 2026.
- State floor speechesOct 21, 20267 days agoState floor speech turns (published transcripts and captions), 2020 on; not LLM-classified.
How the measures work
- What politicians say
- Every post, press release, newsletter and congressional floor speech is read by a language model and marked for personal attacks, policy criticism, policy discussion, bipartisanship and credit claiming. A statement can be in several. Rates are shares of statements in the window. The methods paper.
- Extreme labels
- A statement has an extreme label when it calls a politician, party or policy “far left”, “far right”, “MAGA”, “extreme”, “radical”, “woke”, “fascist” or “communist”. The target is who the label is aimed at.
- Policy areas and agreement
- Statements and bills share 25 Congressional Research Service policy areas (state bills are assigned by a language model). Agreement is 1 − Jensen–Shannon distance between the two distributions, shown with at least 20 policy statements and 5 bills.
- Ideology (CSIP)
- Common-Space Ideal Points place federal and state officials on one left–right scale, estimated jointly from roll calls, campaign contributions and the text of statements, with standard errors. Only a validated run is shown. The methods paper.
- Campaign money
- Campaigns report by name only donors who give more than $200 in a cycle; smaller gifts are reported as one total. Federal totals and the small-donor share come from the FEC’s financial summaries of each campaign committee. Donor counts, donor states, employers and occupations cover itemized donors only. State filings report no small-gift totals, so state figures are itemized only. The lab never publishes donor names.
- Votes and key votes
- Attendance, party unity and the count of votes against the majority of an official’s own party come from roll calls (Voteview for Congress, chamber records for the states). Key votes are final-passage or override votes that became law, were decided by under 10%, saw at least 10% of a party vote against its majority, or concerned one of the 25 bills most mentioned in officials’ statements.
- Peers and ranks
- Comparisons are with the same party, chamber and level (for example House Democrats); state legislators are compared within their state and chamber for votes. Every comparison names its group. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; tied values share the average of their ranks, and the percentile is the share of the group below the value, ties counting half.
America’s Political Pulse · Polarization Research Lab