RightDataUSA


Michael Bennet

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 28, 1964 in New Delhi, India

Education:

  • Wesleyan University, B.A., 1987
  • Yale University, J.D., 1993

Career:

  • Aide to OH Governor Richard Celeste, 1988-1990
  • U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1995-1997
  • Asst. to CT U.S. Attorney, 1997
  • Manager of investment company, 1997-2003
  • Chief of Staff, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, 2003-2005
  • Superintendent of Denver public schools, 2005-2009

Elected Office:

  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on January 21, 2009 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Ken Salazar



Election Results for Michael Bennet


Click on the Year to see the results of that election.

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2010 45 CO D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 184,714 54.1%
2010 45 CO D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 851,590 48.1%
2016 51 CO D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 262,344 100.0%
2016 51 CO D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,370,710 50.0%
2022 57 CO D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 516,977 100.0%
2022 57 CO D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,397,170 55.9%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this election.




Ideology Data for Michael Bennet


Click on the number in the 'Conserv.' column to see all of the key votes for that year.

YearAgeBodyConservative
Coalition
Party UnityPresidential
Support
Vote %LiberalConserv.
P
2009 44 Senate 89 8 D 95 4 97 95 8
2010 45 Senate 87 13 D 98 2 100 85 8
2011 46 Senate 92 8 D 96 4 99 90 5
2012 47 Senate 91 8 D 98 1 98 90 4
2013 48 Senate 96 4 D 99 1 100 85 8
2014 49 Senate 98 1 D 95 1 98 90 4
2015 50 Senate 86 14 D 92 8 100 85 0
2016 51 Senate 89 11 D 94 6 100 95 4
2017 52 Senate 91 9 R 49 51 99 90 0
2018 53 Senate 82 17 R 46 53 99 89 14
2019 54 Senate 68 4 R 32 43 72 94 6
2020 55 Senate 94 3 R 34 61 96 100 9
2021 56 Senate 99 1 D 93 5 99 95 5
2022 57 Senate 96 0 D 94 1 96 3
2023 58 Senate 92 3 D 99 5
2024 59 Senate 92 8 D 100
Lifetime conservative rating:   5%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this row.



Conservative Coalition: According to the publication "Congressional Quarterly" (CQ), this is an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats (from back when Southern Democrats tended to be conservative or at least moderate) against Northern Democrats in Congress.

This concept had significant meaning perhaps through the 1980's. These statistics stopped being computed after 2000 because conservative Democrats no longer existed except in very rare cases. The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the coalition; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the coalition. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.



Party Unity: According to CQ, a Party Unity vote in Congress is one in which the parties were split, with a majority of Democrats opposing a majority of Republicans.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with his party; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the party. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.



Presidential Support: These are votes for which the President has stated his position, either in via a message to Congress, by press conference remarks or other public statements and documents.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the President; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the President. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast. The "P" column indicates the party of the President in each year.



Vote %: The percentage of roll-call votes in which this Representaive or Senator participated by voting "Yes" or "No" (as opposed to "Present" or not voting at all.)



Liberal Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the ultra-liberal advocacy organization called "Americans for Democratic Action" (ADA). They have been rating members of Congress since 1947. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the liberal position on a key issue. The methodology behind the calculation can be found here. Ratings followed by an asterisk were calculated the "ADA way" due to missing data regarding key votes in the ADA source material.



Conservative Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the conservative advocacy organization called the "American Conservative Union" (ACU). They have been rating members of Congress since 1971. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the conservative position on a key issue.

The liberal and conservative ratings are not expected to add to 100% because the two groups use different sets of key votes to determine their ratings. Conservative ratings from 1961 through 1970 (and for 2024) were calculated based on key votes as selected by the creators of this website.