RightDataUSA


Russ Feingold

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 2, 1953 in Janesville, WI

Education:

  • University of Wisconsin, B.A., 1975
  • Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University, 1977
  • Harvard University, J.D., 1979

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • WI Senate, 1983-1993


Election Results for Russ Feingold


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1992 39 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 367,746 69.7%
1992 39 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,290,662 52.6%
1998 45 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 193,505 99.7%
1998 45 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 890,059 50.5%
2004 51 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 251,915 100.0%
2004 51 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,632,697 55.4%
2010 57 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 223,688 100.0%
2010 57 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 2 1,020,958 47.0%
2016 63 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 303,791 90.1%
2016 63 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 2 1,380,835 46.8%


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



Ideology Data for Russ Feingold


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
1993 40 Senate 10 90 94 6 D 85 15 100 100 12
1994 41 Senate 9 91 84 16 D 65 35 100 100 4
1995 42 Senate 5 95 90 9 D 78 21 99 100 13
1996 43 Senate 16 84 87 13 D 86 14 100 95 10
1997 44 Senate 28 72 86 14 D 86 14 100 95 8
1998 45 Senate 38 63 86 14 D 83 17 100 85 12
1999 46 Senate 88 12 89 11 D 82 18 99 100 8
2000 47 Senate 92 8 92 8 D 90 10 100 100 8
2001 48 Senate 89 11 R 59 41 100 95 20
2002 49 Senate 85 15 R 67 33 100 90 5
2003 50 Senate 93 7 R 53 47 100 95 25
2004 51 Senate 95 5 R 71 29 100 100 8
2005 52 Senate 92 4 R 38 60 98 100 13
2006 53 Senate 92 8 R 47 53 100 100 8
2007 54 Senate 93 7 R 36 64 100 95 4
2008 55 Senate 93 7 R 33 67 100 100 24
2009 56 Senate 74 26 D 85 15 100 95 24
2010 57 Senate 83 17 D 86 13 99 95 24
Lifetime conservative rating:   13%


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.