RightDataUSA


Sam Brownback

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 12, 1956 in Garnett, KS

Education:

  • Kansas State University, B.S., 1979
  • University of Kansas, J.D., 1982

Career:

  • Radio broadcaster, 1978-1979
  • Lawyer
  • Law school professor, 1982-1986
  • Ogden & Leonardsville city attorney, 1983-1986
  • Office of U.S. Trade Representative, 1990-1991

Elected Office:

  • KS Secretary of Agriculture, 1986-1993


Election Results for Sam Brownback


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1994 37 KS R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 35,415 48.3%
1994 37 KS R U.S. House District 02 General 1 135,725 65.6%
1996 39 KS R U.S. Senate Class 3 Special Primary 1 187,914 54.8%
1996 39 KS R U.S. Senate Class 3 Special 1 574,021 53.9%
1998 41 KS R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 255,747 100.0%
1998 41 KS R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 474,639 65.3%
2004 47 KS R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 286,839 87.0%
2004 47 KS R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 797,459 69.1%
2010 53 KS R Governor Primary 1 263,920 82.2%
2010 53 KS R Governor General 1 530,760 63.3%
2014 57 KS R Governor Primary 1 166,687 63.2%
2014 57 KS R Governor General 1 433,196 49.8%


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



Ideology Data for Sam Brownback


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
1995 38 House 78 14 85 7 D 30 63 91 0 92
1996 39 House 97 2 95 4 D 22 78 99 5 100
1997 40 Senate 84 16 96 4 D 56 44 100 0 100
1998 41 Senate 88 13 96 4 D 36 63 99 0 92
1999 42 Senate 95 5 96 4 D 31 69 98 5 96
2000 43 Senate 98 2 98 2 D 40 60 99 0 100
2001 44 Senate 94 6 R 92 3 98 0 96
2002 45 Senate 89 6 R 89 0 96 5 100
2003 46 Senate 95 4 R 96 3 99 5 90
2004 47 Senate 89 2 R 95 0 93 17 96
2005 48 Senate 97 3 R 91 9 99 10 100
2006 49 Senate 80 17 R 80 7 96 5 87
2007 50 Senate 62 8 R 71 8 69 6 95
2008 51 Senate 93 6 R 74 26 97 20 76
2009 52 Senate 88 11 D 59 41 99 5 92
2010 53 Senate 88 0 D 29 52 86 0 100
Lifetime conservative rating:   94%


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.