RightDataUSA


Bill Foster

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 7, 1955 in Madison, WI

Education:

  • University of Wisconsin, B.A., 1975
  • Harvard University, Ph.D., 1984

Career:

  • Scientist, Fermi National Acceleration Lab, 1990-2006
  • Co-founder, Electronic Theatre Controls, 1975-2007
  • Board member, Batavia Foundation for Educational Excellence


Election Results for Bill Foster


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2008 52 IL D U.S. House District 14 Primary 1 32,410 42.5%
2008 52 IL D U.S. House District 14 Special Primary 1 32,982 49.6%
2008 52 IL D U.S. House District 14 Special 1 52,205 52.5%
2008 52 IL D U.S. House District 14 General 1 185,404 57.7%
2010 54 IL D U.S. House District 14 Primary 1 25,446 100.0%
2010 54 IL D U.S. House District 14 General 2 98,645 45.0%
2012 56 IL D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 12,126 58.5%
2012 56 IL D U.S. House District 11 General 1 148,928 58.6%
2014 58 IL D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 12,461 100.0%
2014 58 IL D U.S. House District 11 General 1 93,436 53.5%
2016 60 IL D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 82,984 100.0%
2016 60 IL D U.S. House District 11 General 1 166,578 60.4%
2018 62 IL D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 49,762 100.0%
2018 62 IL D U.S. House District 11 General 1 145,407 63.8%
2020 64 IL D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 46,116 58.7%
2020 64 IL D U.S. House District 11 General 1 194,557 63.3%
2022 66 IL D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 44,096 100.0%
2022 66 IL D U.S. House District 11 General 1 149,172 56.5%


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



Ideology Data for Bill Foster


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
2008 52 House 78 7 R 18 66 83 76 13
2009 53 House 85 15 D 93 7 99 80 4
2010 54 House 88 11 D 88 10 99 90 9
2013 57 House 82 16 D 66 31 99 60 12
2014 58 House 92 7 D 82 17 99 70 0
2015 59 House 95 5 D 88 12 99 85 8
2016 60 House 96 4 D 91 9 99 90 0
2017 61 House 97 2 R 14 83 99 95 4
2018 62 House 94 5 R 41 59 96 67 16
2019 63 House 99 0 R 4 96 99 90 3
2020 64 House 97 1 R 6 94 98 84 4
2021 65 House 99 0 D 100 0 99 95 5
2022 66 House 98 1 D 100 0 99 3
2023 67 House 94 6 D 99 3
2024 68 House 88 11 D 99 4
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.