RightDataUSA


Cindy Hyde-Smith

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 10, 1959 in Brookhaven, MS

Education:

  • Copiah-Lincoln Community College, A.A., 1979
  • University of Southern Mississippi, B.A. (criminal justice and political science), 1981

Career:

  • Cattle farmer
  • Congressional affairs consultant

Elected Office:

  • MS Senate, 2000-2012
  • MS Agriculture Commissioner, 2012-2018
  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on April 2, 2018 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thad Cochran


Election Results for Cindy Hyde-Smith


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2011 52 MS R Commissioner of Agriculture Primary 1 144,873 52.9%
2011 52 MS R Commissioner of Agriculture General 1 493,417 56.9%
2015 56 MS R Commissioner of Agriculture Primary 1 214,643 100.0%
2015 56 MS R Commissioner of Agriculture General 1 433,295 61.5%
2018 59 MS R U.S. Senate Class 2 Special 1 389,995 41.2%
2018 59 MS R U.S. Senate Class 2 SRO 1 486,769 53.6%
2020 61 MS R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 235,463 100.0%
2020 61 MS R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 709,539 54.1%


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



Ideology Data for Cindy Hyde-Smith


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
2018 59 Senate 74 4 R 73 0 75 0 82
2019 60 Senate 96 3 R 99 0 99 0 67
2020 61 Senate 97 1 R 96 4 98 0 78
2021 62 Senate 87 8 D 50 45 95 0 81
2022 63 Senate 91 5 D 16 83 97 81
2023 64 Senate 89 4 D 97 80
2024 65 Senate 89 7 D 96
Lifetime conservative rating:   79%


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.