RightDataUSA


Ben Cardin

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 5, 1943 in Baltimore, MD

Education:

  • University of Pittsburgh, B.A., 1964
  • University of Maryland, LL.B., J.D., 1967

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Chairman, MD Legal Services Corp., 1988-1995

Elected Office:

  • MD House, 1966-1986 (Speaker, 1979-1986)


Election Results for Ben Cardin


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1986 42 MD D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 69,980 82.2%
1986 42 MD D U.S. House District 03 General 1 100,161 79.1%
1988 44 MD D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 52,848 86.2%
1988 44 MD D U.S. House District 03 General 1 133,779 72.9%
1990 46 MD D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 43,496 83.2%
1990 46 MD D U.S. House District 03 General 1 82,545 69.7%
1992 48 MD D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 63,793 84.5%
1992 48 MD D U.S. House District 03 General 1 163,354 73.5%
1994 50 MD D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 64,742 86.6%
1994 50 MD D U.S. House District 03 General 1 117,269 71.0%
1996 52 MD D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 34,496 90.3%
1996 52 MD D U.S. House District 03 General 1 130,204 67.3%
1998 54 MD D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 50,240 89.6%
1998 54 MD D U.S. House District 03 General 1 137,501 77.6%
2000 56 MD D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 56,484 100.0%
2000 56 MD D U.S. House District 03 General 1 169,347 75.7%
2002 58 MD D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 62,938 90.0%
2002 58 MD D U.S. House District 03 General 1 145,589 65.7%
2004 60 MD D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 54,398 89.8%
2004 60 MD D U.S. House District 03 General 1 182,066 63.4%
2006 62 MD D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 257,545 43.7%
2006 62 MD D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 965,477 54.2%
2012 68 MD D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 240,704 74.2%
2012 68 MD D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 1,474,028 56.0%
2018 74 MD D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 477,441 80.3%
2018 74 MD D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 1,491,614 64.9%


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



Ideology Data for Ben Cardin


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
1987 43 House 19 81 90 3 R 22 75 95 88 0
1988 44 House 18 79 93 4 R 22 76 98 95 4
1989 45 House 22 76 94 5 R 36 63 98 90 7
1990 46 House 13 87 95 4 R 21 79 99 83 4
1991 47 House 22 78 91 8 R 32 67 99 75 0
1992 48 House 27 71 93 5 R 17 82 98 95 4
1993 49 House 20 80 92 5 D 83 17 98 90 4
1994 50 House 31 67 93 4 D 74 19 97 82 10
1995 51 House 40 58 84 14 D 87 12 98 89 12
1996 52 House 35 57 84 13 D 80 16 97 83 11
1997 53 House 45 55 85 15 D 83 17 98 85 12
1998 54 House 33 60 86 9 D 74 21 95 100 8
1999 55 House 91 7 D 80 20 99 100 0
2000 56 House 92 8 D 92 8 99 90 8
2001 57 House 89 11 R 35 65 100 100 4
2002 58 House 90 10 R 36 64 98 95 0
2003 59 House 91 7 R 24 76 99 90 24
2004 60 House 90 6 R 36 55 95 95 0
2005 61 House 92 5 R 22 78 95 95 0
2006 62 House 92 4 R 24 76 97 90 8
2007 63 Senate 97 3 R 35 64 99 95 0
2008 64 Senate 96 3 R 35 65 99 100 8
2009 65 Senate 99 1 D 99 1 100 95 0
2010 66 Senate 99 1 D 98 2 100 90 0
2011 67 Senate 100 0 D 97 3 100 100 0
2012 68 Senate 99 1 D 96 4 99 95 0
2013 69 Senate 100 0 D 99 1 99 100 4
2014 70 Senate 99 0 D 98 1 99 90 0
2015 71 Senate 98 2 D 88 12 100 100 0
2016 72 Senate 97 3 D 94 6 100 95 0
2017 73 Senate 98 2 R 40 60 100 100 0
2018 74 Senate 96 4 R 39 60 98 89 9
2019 75 Senate 91 9 R 44 55 99 95 0
2020 76 Senate 93 4 R 36 59 96 100 4
2021 77 Senate 99 0 D 93 5 99 100 3
2022 78 Senate 98 0 D 100 0 98 0
2023 79 Senate 93 1 D 98 5
2024 80 Senate 90 10 D 99
Lifetime conservative rating:   4%


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.