Votes & Positions Over Time

Where did he stand, recorded, over time? Four years in the Senate and 986 votes — a short record, and one that splits cleanly in half. He voted in 98.3% of roll calls in the Congress before he ran for president and 53.7% in the Congress while he did. Six sitting senators sought the presidency in that same Congress, against the same 657 roll calls, and all six fell far below a chamber median of 97.9%. The two who won their party’s nomination fell furthest.

The six universal dives are asked of every subject at this tier. This is not one of them. It exists because of one thing this subject has been — office-holder — and a subject who has not been that never gets this page. That is why this record has 7 overlay dives to write rather than a number every record shares. All six base dives were written first, and that ordering is a rule rather than a habit: an overlay dive published on its own is a page about the part of someone chosen by whoever built it.

The six base dives and the other 6 overlay dives are listed on the full record.

Ninety-eight per cent, then fifty-four

In the 109th Congress he missed eleven roll calls out of 645 — a participation rate of 98.3%, above the median senator’s. In the 110th he missed 303 of 655. Same seat, same man, one Congress after the other.

A within-subject control is the strongest kind available on a record like this, and here it is exact: consecutive Congresses, no change of chamber, no change of state, no gap. The difference between the two halves is that he announced a presidential campaign in February 2007. Nothing on this page argues that missing votes to run for president is right or wrong; it establishes the size of it, which is a fact nobody can read off a career average.