RightDataUSA


Ted Cruz

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 22, 1970 in Calgary, Alberta

Education:

  • Princeton University, B.A., 1992
  • Harvard University, J.D., 1995

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Clerk, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 1996-1997
  • Domestic policy advisor, Bush-Cheney campaign, 1999-2000
  • Deputy U.S. Attorney General, 2001
  • Federal Trade Commission, 2001-2003
  • TX Solicitor General, 2003-2008
  • Adjunct professor of law, University of Texas, 2004-2009


Election Results for Ted Cruz


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2012 41 TX R U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 2 480,558 34.2%
2012 41 TX R U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary Runoff 1 631,812 56.8%
2012 41 TX R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 4,440,137 56.5%
2018 47 TX R U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 1,322,724 85.4%
2018 47 TX R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 4,260,553 50.9%


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



Ideology Data for Ted Cruz


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
2013 42 Senate 91 1 D 28 67 95 0 100
2014 43 Senate 89 2 D 48 47 92 11 100
2015 44 Senate 74 9 D 30 41 76 0 100
2016 45 Senate 40 9 D 23 29 50 0 100
2017 46 Senate 97 1 R 96 3 98 5 96
2018 47 Senate 91 3 R 83 4 91 0 95
2019 48 Senate 95 0 R 92 5 97 0 95
2020 49 Senate 90 1 R 90 6 92 5 95
2021 50 Senate 97 0 D 18 82 98 0 95
2022 51 Senate 89 1 D 8 83 89 93
2023 52 Senate 83 1 D 90 89
2024 53 Senate 95 1 D 97
Lifetime conservative rating:   96%


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.