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Republican · Kentucky House, district 53

Serving since Jan 1, 2015KY 2025–26 session

Portrait of James Tipton, rendered as a two-tone print
Official portrait
85%
of State House Republicans score to the left of Tipton on the CSIP scale

CSIP score +0.59 (approximate range +0.51 to +0.66, which understates the uncertainty); negative is left of the scale’s centre, positive right. From 56 donors and 1,030 roll calls.

CSIP places every official on one left–right scale estimated from roll-call votes, campaign donations and the text of statements; 0 is the centre of the scale, not a definition of moderate. The share says where Tipton sits among State House Republicans, not how far from the centre.

At a glance

5 measures against State House Republicans. 100% of Tipton’s itemized money in the 2026 cycle came from Kentucky, in the top quarter of State House Republicans. Tipton reported $9,650 in the 2026 cycle, in the bottom quarter of State House Republicans (median $33.7K).

The measures on which Tipton 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.

Attendance

99.1%

Kentucky House average 91.1% · ranks 1st of 100 · 785 roll calls

CSIP ideology

+0.59

More conservative than 85% of State House Republicans · ± 0.07

From Kentucky, 2026

100%

Of itemized individual dollars · ranks 392nd of 2,335 State House Republicans

Party unity

99.1%

Kentucky House average 95.2% · ranks 22nd of 100 · 5 votes against the majority of Kentucky House Republicans

Itemized, 2026

$9,650

State House Republicans’ median $33.7K · ranks 1928th of 2,521

Statements

No statements in this window

Peer group: State House Republicans. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; the thick bar is Tipton, the thin grey bar the peer average. The headline is the measure on which Tipton is most unusual among peers (Methods, §08).

Back to topNext: What politicians say

What Tipton says

No statements for the KY 2025–26 session.No classified statements (posts, press releases, newsletters, floor speeches) in this time window.

Back to topNext: Policy

Policy

No policy statements for the KY 2025–26 session.No classified statements (posts, press releases, newsletters, floor speeches) in this time window.

Back to topNext: Ideology

Ideology

Tipton sits at +0.59 on the CSIP scale, right of 0, more conservative than 85% of State House Republicans. Approximate range +0.51 to +0.66, which understates the uncertainty; from 56 donors and 1,030 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”.

+0.59

CSIP ideal point

Approximate range +0.51 to +0.66. From 56 donors and 1,030 roll calls. Run 2026-10-25T215945. Blue is left of 0, red right of 0.

← More liberalMore conservative →0Tipton +0.6State House Republicans +0.4Kentucky House +0.4All State House +0.1

The outlined dot is Tipton, 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 Tipton’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 Tipton sits

Every official in each group, on the CSIP scale

−2.0−1.00.0+1.0+2.0← More liberalMore conservative →State House Republicansmedian +0.4Tipton +0.6Kentucky Housemedian +0.4All State Housemedian +0.1
Show the data
Tipton's CSIP score of +0.59 placed against State House Republicans, Kentucky House, All State House.
GroupOfficialsMedianShare left of Tipton
State House Republicans2917+0.485%
Kentucky House100+0.486%
All State House5324+0.192%
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 Tipton 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 Tipton.

Back to topNext: Money

Money

Tipton reported $9,650 in the 2026 cycle, 29% of the State House Republicans’ median of $33.7K. State filings report no small-donation total. 100% of itemized individual money came from Kentucky.

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.

Election cycle
$9,650

itemized in the 2026 cycle

From 29 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): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)Individuals (itemized): $6,150 (63.7%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)PACs and other committees: $3,500 (36.3%)
  • Individuals (itemized)64 squares$6,150
  • PACs and other committees36 squares$3,500
Show the data
Sources of Tipton's money, 2026 cycle, one square per percent
SourceAmountShare
Individuals (itemized)$6,15063.7%
PACs and other committees$3,50036.3%
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.

2020 cycle: $34.4K$34.4K20202022 cycle: $30.3K$30.3K20222024 cycle: $12.0K$12.0K20242026 cycle: $9,650$9,6502026State House Republicans median $33.7K
Show the data
Tipton's receipts by cycle against the 2026 State House Republicans median.
ItemValue
2020 cycle$34.4K
2022 cycle$30.3K
2024 cycle$12.0K
2026 cycle$9,650

Top donor states, 2026

Itemized contributions by donor state. 100% came from Kentucky.

  1. Kentucky$6,150

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

Alaska: no dataAKMaine: no dataMEVermont: no dataVTNew Hampshire: no dataNHWashington: no dataWAIdaho: no dataIDMontana: no dataMTNorth Dakota: no dataNDMinnesota: no dataMNIllinois: no dataILWisconsin: no dataWIMichigan: no dataMINew York: no dataNYRhode Island: no dataRIMassachusetts: no dataMAOregon: no dataORNevada: no dataNVWyoming: no dataWYSouth Dakota: no dataSDIowa: no dataIAIndiana: no dataINOhio: no dataOHPennsylvania: no dataPANew Jersey: no dataNJConnecticut: no dataCTCalifornia: no dataCAUtah: no dataUTColorado: no dataCONebraska: no dataNEMissouri: no dataMOKentucky: $6,150KYWest Virginia: no dataWVVirginia: no dataVAMaryland: no dataMDDelaware: no dataDEArizona: no dataAZNew Mexico: no dataNMKansas: no dataKSArkansas: no dataARTennessee: no dataTNNorth Carolina: no dataNCSouth Carolina: no dataSCDistrict of Columbia: no dataDCOklahoma: no dataOKLouisiana: no dataLAMississippi: no dataMSAlabama: no dataALGeorgia: no dataGAHawaii: no dataHITexas: no dataTXFlorida: no dataFL
Show the data
Tipton's itemized individual contributions by donor state, 2026 cycle
StateValue
Kentucky$6,150
AlaskaNo data
MaineNo data
VermontNo data
New HampshireNo data
WashingtonNo data
IdahoNo data
MontanaNo data
North DakotaNo data
MinnesotaNo data
IllinoisNo data
WisconsinNo data
MichiganNo data
New YorkNo data
Rhode IslandNo data
MassachusettsNo data
OregonNo data
NevadaNo data
WyomingNo data
South DakotaNo data
IowaNo data
IndianaNo data
OhioNo data
PennsylvaniaNo data
New JerseyNo data
ConnecticutNo data
CaliforniaNo data
UtahNo data
ColoradoNo data
NebraskaNo data
MissouriNo data
West VirginiaNo data
VirginiaNo data
MarylandNo data
DelawareNo data
ArizonaNo data
New MexicoNo data
KansasNo data
ArkansasNo data
TennesseeNo data
North CarolinaNo data
South CarolinaNo data
District of ColumbiaNo data
OklahomaNo data
LouisianaNo data
MississippiNo data
AlabamaNo data
GeorgiaNo data
HawaiiNo data
TexasNo data
FloridaNo data
29

itemized donors

People who gave more than $200

100%

from Kentucky

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 Kentucky. Gifts of $200 or less carry no address and are left out.

Top donor occupations

Itemized, 2026 cycle.

  1. RETIRED$2,550 13 donors
  2. FARMER$1,000 3 donors
  3. REPRESENTATIVE$700 3 donors

Top committees

PAC and committee contributions, 2026 cycle.

  1. BLUEGRASS COMMITTEE$2,200
  2. KENTUCKY SOYBEAN ASSOCIATION A QUALIFIES MULTI-CANDIDATE COMMITTEE$500
  3. MARATHON PETROLEUM CORPORATION EMPLOYEES PAC$500
  4. OPTOMETRIC POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE$300

Top employers

Itemized, 2026 cycle.

  1. STATE OF KENTUCKY$900 5 donors

Aggregates only. Individual donors are never named.

Back to topNext: Votes

Votes

Tipton voted with the majority of Kentucky House Republicans on 99.1% of party-line votes and missed 0.9% of 785 roll calls. Kentucky House on average: 95.2% party unity, 91.1% attendance. Across all roll calls, Tipton voted against the majority of Kentucky House Republicans 5 times.

785 roll calls Tipton could vote on in the KY 2025–26 session, compared with Kentucky 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 Tipton voted with the majority of Kentucky House Republicans. The count of votes against that majority covers every roll call where the majority took a side.

5

votes against the majority of Kentucky House Republicans

Party unity 99.1%, Kentucky House average 95.2%, ranks 22nd of 100. 785 roll calls in the KY 2025–26 session.

Attendance and party unity

The thick bar is Tipton, the thin grey bar the Kentucky House average. The scale runs from 80% to 100% to show the gap.

80%100%
Tipton
Peers
Rank
Attendance
99.1%
91.1%
1st of 100
Party unity
99.1%
95.2%
22nd of 100
Show the data
Tipton's attendance and party unity against Kentucky House.
RowTiptonPeers
Attendance99.1%91.1%
Party unity99.1%95.2%
What this means, and what it doesn’t

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.

Key votes

25 roll calls the lab flagged as key in the KY 2025–26 session

Key votes
Party split (yea–nay)Why it’s key
Apr 15, 2026
SB 70
AN ACT relating to the Public Pension Oversight Board.
Pass
YeaWith majoritypassD 17–1 · R 80–0Democrats 17 yea, 1 nay; Republicans 80 yea, 0 naybecame law
Apr 15, 2026
SB 324
AN ACT relating to the entertainment industry.
Pass
YeaWith majoritypassD 18–1 · R 62–14Democrats 18 yea, 1 nay; Republicans 62 yea, 14 naybecame law · party crossover
Apr 15, 2026
SJR 116
A JOINT RESOLUTION directing the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, and Eastern Kentucky University to coordinate a search for actionable solutions to physician shortages and to explore and expand health care opportunities in medically underserved areas in collaboration with commu
Adopt
YeaWith majoritypassD 18–0 · R 78–0Democrats 18 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 78 yea, 0 naybecame law
Apr 15, 2026
SB 261
AN ACT relating to pedestrian swinging bridges.
Pass
YeaWith majoritypassD 19–0 · R 74–3Democrats 19 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 74 yea, 3 naybecame law
Apr 15, 2026
HB 826
AN ACT relating to education.
Final Passage
YeaWith majoritypassD 14–4 · R 75–0Democrats 14 yea, 4 nay; Republicans 75 yea, 0 naybecame law · party crossover
How key votes are chosen

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.

Votes most often with

The colleagues who voted the same way as Tipton most often

  1. Dan FisterR330 shared votes100%
  2. David OsborneR327 shared votes100%
  3. Susan WittenR325 shared votes100%
  4. Amy NeighborsR325 shared votes100%
  5. Rebecca RaymerR323 shared votes100%

Votes least often with

The colleagues who voted the same way as Tipton least often

  1. Mary Lou MarzianD223 shared votes60%
  2. Pamela StevensonD263 shared votes60%
  3. Lindsey BurkeD246 shared votes63%
  4. Lisa WillnerD260 shared votes64%
  5. George BrownD308 shared votes65%
How to read the agreement lists

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.

Full voting record

KY 2025–26 session, loads in batches

Back to topNext: Legislation

Legislation

No bills for the KY 2025–26 session.No sponsored or cosponsored bills are recorded for this official in this time window.

Back to topNext: Online

Online

A site that changed 1 time in 90 days. Tipton’s official site had 1 page when last crawled on Oct 1, 2026.

The lab crawls Tipton’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 Tipton posts with a vision model.

Websites

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.

Images Tipton posted

No images from Tipton’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

29 turns, Feb 9, 2021 to Mar 31, 2026

Floor speeches

Transcribed from chamber video or captions by the lab. They are not classified for kinds of statement.

Back to topNext: Methods and sources

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 Tipton 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
d6c9aa9b-3c6b-411a-bff1-fc1c38d4bce0
Open States
ocd-person/d6c9aa9b-3c6b-411a-bff1-fc1c38d4bce0

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

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