RightDataUSA


Stephanie Herseth

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 3, 1970 near Houghton, SD

Education:

  • Groton High School (Groton, SD), 1989
  • Georgetown University, B.A., 1993
  • J.D., 1997

Career:

  • Lawyer

Other notes:

  • Wife of Max Sandlin, granddaughter of Ralph Herseth



Election Results for Stephanie Herseth


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2002 31 SD D U.S. House At-Large District Primary 1 39,576 58.1%
2002 31 SD D U.S. House At-Large District General 2 153,551 45.6%
2004 33 SD D U.S. House At-Large District Special 1 132,420 50.6%
2004 33 SD D U.S. House At-Large District General 1 207,837 53.4%
2006 35 SD D U.S. House At-Large District General 1 230,468 69.1%
2008 37 SD D U.S. House At-Large District General 1 256,041 67.6%
2010 39 SD D U.S. House At-Large District General 2 146,589 45.9%


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




Ideology Data for Stephanie Herseth


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
2004 33 House 49 15 R 24 36 59 73 31
2005 34 House 75 20 R 37 63 96 84 33
2006 35 House 76 24 R 53 47 98 65 60
2007 36 House 88 11 R 13 87 99 90 12
2008 37 House 90 9 R 24 75 98 70 28
2009 38 House 86 12 D 78 22 97 68 21
2010 39 House 69 28 D 71 29 97 47 13
Lifetime conservative rating:   28%


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.