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Democrat · Mississippi Senate, district 13

Serving since Jan 7, 2020MS 2025–26 session

Portrait of Sarita Simmons, rendered as a two-tone print
Official portrait
66
votes against the majority of Mississippi Senate Democrats

Party unity 53%, in the bottom 5% of the Mississippi Senate (average 88%). 2,118 roll calls in the MS 2025–26 session.

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 Simmons voted with the majority of Mississippi Senate Democrats; it is ranked within the Mississippi Senate. The count covers every roll call where Simmons voted opposite that majority.

At a glance

4 measures against the Mississippi Senate. Simmons sits at −0.21 on the CSIP scale, more conservative than 95% of State Senate Democrats. Simmons reported $2,500 in the 2026 cycle, in the bottom 5% of State Senate Democrats (median $55.5K).

The measures on which Simmons sits furthest from the middle of the Mississippi Senate, each against the same group, with the CSIP score when there is one. Every number is explained in its own section below.

Party unity

53%

Mississippi Senate average 88% · ranks 49th of 51 · 66 votes against the majority of Mississippi Senate Democrats

CSIP ideology

−0.21

More conservative than 95% of State Senate Democrats · ± 0.02

Itemized, 2026

$2,500

State Senate Democrats’ median $55.5K · ranks 713th of 746

Attendance

98.7%

Mississippi Senate average 97.1% · ranks 22nd of 51 · 2,118 roll calls

Statements

No statements in this window

Roll calls

2,118

Compared with Mississippi Senate

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

Back to topNext: What politicians say

What Simmons says

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

Back to topNext: Ideology

Ideology

Simmons sits at −0.21 on the CSIP scale, left of 0, more conservative than 95% of State Senate Democrats. Approximate range −0.23 to −0.19, which understates the uncertainty; from 11 donors and 868 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”.

−0.21

CSIP ideal point

Approximate range −0.23 to −0.19. From 11 donors and 868 roll calls. Run 2026-10-25T215945. Blue is left of 0, red right of 0.

← More liberalMore conservative →0Simmons −0.2State Senate Democrats −0.7Mississippi Senate 0.0All State Senate +0.1

The outlined dot is Simmons, 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 Simmons’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 Simmons sits

Every official in each group, on the CSIP scale

−2.0−1.00.0+1.0+2.0← More liberalMore conservative →State Senate Democratsmedian −0.7Simmons −0.2Mississippi Senatemedian 0.0All State Senatemedian +0.1
Show the data
Simmons's CSIP score of −0.21 placed against State Senate Democrats, Mississippi Senate, All State Senate.
GroupOfficialsMedianShare left of Simmons
State Senate Democrats825−0.795%
Mississippi Senate510.025%
All State Senate1909+0.142%
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 Simmons 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 Simmons.

Back to topNext: Money

Money

Simmons reported $2,500 in the 2026 cycle, 4.5% of the State Senate Democrats’ median of $55.5K. State filings report no small-donation total.

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
$2,500

itemized in the 2026 cycle

From 0 itemized donors. State Senate Democrats’ median $55.5K.

Where the money came from

Each square is one percent of itemized contributions in the 2026 cycle.

PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)PACs and other committees: $2,500 (100.0%)
  • PACs and other committees100 squares$2,500
Show the data
Sources of Simmons's money, 2026 cycle, one square per percent
SourceAmountShare
PACs and other committees$2,500100.0%
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, 2024 to 2026. The grey line is the State Senate Democrats’ median for 2026.

2024 cycle: $19.1K$19.1K20242026 cycle: $2,500$2,5002026State Senate Democrats median $55.5K
Show the data
Simmons's receipts by cycle against the 2026 State Senate Democrats median.
ItemValue
2024 cycle$19.1K
2026 cycle$2,500

Top donor states, 2026

Itemized contributions by donor state.

No itemized donors with an address.

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: no dataKYWest 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
Simmons's itemized individual contributions by donor state, 2026 cycle
StateValue
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
KentuckyNo 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
0

itemized donors

People who gave more than $200

No itemized individual money.

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

Top donor occupations

Itemized, 2026 cycle.

No occupations reported.

Top committees

PAC and committee contributions, 2026 cycle.

  1. MS ROAD BUILDERS ASSOCIATION PAC$1,000
  2. WALPAC FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVT PAC$1,000
  3. CAPITOL RESOURCES PAC$500

Top employers

Itemized, 2026 cycle.

No employers reported.

Aggregates only. Individual donors are never named.

Back to topNext: Votes

Votes

Simmons voted with the majority of Mississippi Senate Democrats on 53% of party-line votes and missed 1.2% of 2,118 roll calls. Mississippi Senate on average: 88% party unity, 97.1% attendance. Across all roll calls, Simmons voted against the majority of Mississippi Senate Democrats 66 times.

2,118 roll calls Simmons could vote on in the MS 2025–26 session, compared with Mississippi Senate. 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 Simmons voted with the majority of Mississippi Senate Democrats. The count of votes against that majority covers every roll call where the majority took a side.

66

votes against the majority of Mississippi Senate Democrats

Party unity 53%, Mississippi Senate average 88%, ranks 49th of 51. 2,118 roll calls in the MS 2025–26 session.

Attendance and party unity

The thick bar is Simmons, the thin grey bar the Mississippi Senate average. The scale runs from 50% to 100% to show the gap.

50%100%
Simmons
Peers
Rank
Attendance
98.7%
97.1%
22nd of 51
Party unity
53%
88%
49th of 51
Show the data
Simmons's attendance and party unity against Mississippi Senate.
RowSimmonsPeers
Attendance98.7%97.1%
Party unity53%88%
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 MS 2025–26 session

Key votes
Party split (yea–nay)Why it’s key
Jul 16, 2026
HB 2
Appropriation; Department of Human Services of.
Passage
Did not vote—passD 13–0 · R 25–0Democrats 13 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 25 yea, 0 naybecame law · much discussed
Jul 16, 2026
HB 1
Appropriation; Department of Human Services to establish and implement youth diversion program.
Passage
Did not vote—passD 14–0 · R 25–0Democrats 14 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 25 yea, 0 naybecame law · much discussed
Jul 15, 2026
SB 2001
The Mississippi Youth Court Reform Act of 2026; enact.
Passage as Amended
Did not vote—passD 1–9 · R 24–1Democrats 1 yea, 9 nay; Republicans 24 yea, 1 naybecame law · party crossover
Apr 2, 2026
SB 2474
Rare Disease Task Force; establish within the Mississippi Rare Disease Advisory Council.
Adopt Conference Report
YeaWith majoritypassD 18–0 · R 34–0Democrats 18 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 34 yea, 0 naybecame law
Apr 2, 2026
HB 1761
Alcoholic beverages; extend repealers relating to festival wine permits.
Adopt Conference Report
YeaWith majoritypassD 16–2 · R 32–2Democrats 16 yea, 2 nay; Republicans 32 yea, 2 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 Simmons most often

  1. Justin PopeD1,041 shared votes99%
  2. Kamesha MumfordD1,041 shared votes99%
  3. Theresa Gillespie IsomD1,038 shared votes99%
  4. Juan BarnettD1,822 shared votes99%
  5. Johnny DuPreeD1,035 shared votes99%

Votes least often with

The colleagues who voted the same way as Simmons least often

  1. Kathy ChismR1,945 shared votes88%
  2. Don HartnessR1,030 shared votes89%
  3. Angela HillR1,991 shared votes92%
  4. Mike SeymourR2,007 shared votes93%
  5. David JordanD981 shared votes93%
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

MS 2025–26 session, loads in batches

Back to topNext: Legislation

Legislation

Simmons sponsored 0 bills in the MS 2025–26 session; none became law. Cosponsored 181 others.

The bills Simmons sponsored and cosponsored in the MS 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 MS 2025–26 session

Sponsored0 billsSponsored, Introduced: 00Sponsored, In committee: 00Sponsored, Passed one chamber: 00Sponsored, Passed both chambers: 00Sponsored, Became law: 00Cosponsored181 billsCosponsored, Introduced: 181181Cosponsored, In committee: 181181Cosponsored, Passed one chamber: 142142Cosponsored, Passed both chambers: 7676Cosponsored, Became law: 4545IntroducedIncommitteePassed onechamberPassed bothchambersBecamelaw
Show the data
Bills Simmons sponsored and cosponsored, by furthest stage reached
RoleIntroducedIn committeePassed one chamberPassed both chambersBecame law
Sponsored00000
Cosponsored1811811427645
How to read the blocks

Ink blocks are bills Simmons sponsored, ochre blocks bills Simmons cosponsored; the figure above each block is the count. Most bills in any legislature never leave committee, so a short staircase is the norm.

No effectiveness score.Too few sponsored bills to score (at least 5 are needed).

Cosponsorship partners

Colleagues who most often cosponsor with Simmons, by number of shared bills in the MS 2025–26 session; the square shows their party.

  1. Albert Butler51
  2. Derrick Simmons49
  3. Sollie Norwood46
  4. Michael McLendon44
  5. Briggs Hopson43
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 Simmons’s bills; the toggle shows more.

Bill list

Sponsored and cosponsored, with status and policy area; five are shown, the toggle shows the rest

Bills sponsored and cosponsored
SC 543Commend Yasmine Ware of Madison, Mississippi, as a 2025 Truman Scholar.CosponsorMar 23, 2026Passed both chambersUnassignedEnrolled Bill Signed Apr 6, 2026
SC 545Honor Carroll E. Rhodes for lifetime of service to civil rights in Mississippi.CosponsorMar 17, 2026In committeeUnassignedDied In Committee Apr 15, 2026
SR 90Congratulate former State Senator Bobby Chamberlin upon his investiture as United States District Court Judge.CosponsorMar 17, 2026Passed one chamberUnassignedAdopted Mar 26, 2026
SC 533Extend the sympathy of the Legislature to the family of national civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson.CosponsorMar 16, 2026Passed one chamberUnassignedDied In Committee Apr 15, 2026
SR 57Commend MBI Special Agent Milton Williams, Jr., for his receipt of the Northern Region Special Agent citation.CosponsorMar 3, 2026Passed one chamberUnassignedAdopted Mar 13, 2026

Back to topNext: Online

Online

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

The lab crawls Simmons’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 Simmons 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 Simmons posted

No images from Simmons’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

No transcribed state floor speeches are matched to this legislator yet.

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 Simmons is most unusual among Mississippi Senate, 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
f1012c43-9559-4f7a-8b70-8dd9cf88bab1
Open States
ocd-person/f1012c43-9559-4f7a-8b70-8dd9cf88bab1

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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