View Alignments of Every Federal and State Idaho Lawmaker
Washington, DC – The Institute for Legislative Analysis has just released the third-edition of the Idaho GOP Platform Ratings, an independent analysis measuring state lawmaker voting alignment to the Republican party platform of Idaho.
Additionally, the ILA has released the “Trump Scores,” a concept originally popularized by the now-defunct FiveThirtyEight.com to measure how closely members of Congress aligned with President Trump’s positions. The rating system has been revived by the ILA and now expanded to cover state legislatures. The data is available at GOPScorecard.com and covers all Idaho Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
The Idaho members of Congress most aligned with President Trump’s policy positions include Russ Fulcher (89.73%) and Jim Risch (88.06%), while the least aligned member is Mike Simpson (66.67%) — opposing Trump’s positions across a third of his votes.
Thirty-nine members of the Idaho legislature voted in alignment with boththe Idaho GOP platform and President Trump’s policy positions at a rate of 80 percent of the time or greater: Glenneda Zuiderveld, Christy Zito, Daniel Foreman, Lucas Cayler, Bruce Skaug, Joshua Kohl, Tony Wisniewski, Kent Marmon, Cornel Rasor, Clint Hostetler, Tammy Nichols, Cindy Carlson, Dale Hawkins, Heather Scott, Kyle Harris, Steve Tanner, Elaine Price, Chris Bruce, Faye Thompson, David Leavitt, Brian Lenney, Doug Okuniewicz, Robert Beiswenger, Charlie Shepherd, Josh Tanner, Jordan Redman, Joe Alfieri, Tanya Burgoyne, Brandon Mitchell, Jaron Crane, Phil Hart, Brent Crane, Jeff Ehlers, Barbara Ehardt, Ben Toews, Joe Palmer, Jason Monks, Kevin Andrus, and Vito Barbieri.
Six Republican members of the legislature voted in opposition to either Trump’s policy positions or the Idaho GOP platform as often or more than they voted in support — Lori McCann, James Woodward, Richard Cheatum, Mark Sauter, Jim Guthrie, and Jack Nelsen.
Powered by the most comprehensive dataset ever compiled on the U.S. Congress — developed by the Institute for Legislative Analysis — the Trump Score goes far beyond its original scope. Utilizing not only President Trump’s public statements but also the official Republican Party platform under Trump, the new system analyzes a far wider range of votes, including amendments and procedural motions, resulting in significantly improved accuracy.
“The media’s focus on high-profile bills and headline votes often creates the impression that members of both parties are unified in either their support for or opposition to President Trump and his policies,” said Ryan McGowan, CEO of the Institute for Legislative Analysis. “We’re excited to supply the data behind this new generation of the Trump Score. By now incorporating the often-overlooked procedural and amendment votes, it’s clear that — despite the rhetoric — a number of lawmakers’ voting records don’t truly align with the America First agenda they project on the campaign trail or in the media.“
Key National Findings:
- Republicans most frequently broke from Trump on spending issues, while showing strong alignment on crime-related legislation.
- Democrats rarely aligned with Trump, but when they did, it was most often on foreign policy or civil liberties, such as FISA-related votes.
- Overall, Democrats were more unified in opposing Trump’s positions than Republicans were in supporting them.
The upgraded methodology also resolves a major shortcoming of the original Trump Score: situations where both the far-left and far-right opposed the same bill, but for entirely different reasons. By accounting for intent and context, the updated score delivers a far more nuanced and reliable analysis.
The Trump Score now also covers state-level lawmakers, with the initial release covering Idaho (fully Republican-controlled) and Maryland (fully Democratic-controlled). Each provides unique insights into how lawmakers align with America First policies at the state level, based on their political makeup. The Institute plans to expand coverage to all 7,400+ state legislators nationwide.
View all the Trump Scores at GOPScorecard.com.
For media inquiries contact: [email protected] or 301-542-2399
About Institute for Legislative Analysis
The Institute for Legislative Analysis aims to advance the limited government principles of the U.S. Constitution by increasing transparency within Congress and the 50 state legislatures. Visit its website at https://www.limitedgov.org/.
