RightDataUSA


Mark Kirk

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 15, 1959 in Champaign, IL

Education:

  • Cornell University, B.A., 1981
  • London School of Economics, M.Sc., 1982
  • Georgetown University, J.D., 1992

Military Service:

  • U.S. Naval Reserve, 1989-

Career:

  • Parliamentary aide, British House of Commons, 1981-1983
  • Assistant to Rep. John Porter, 1984-1990
  • World Bank, 1990-1991
  • Lawyer
  • U.S. State Department, 1992-1993
  • Counsel to House Committee on International Relations, 1995-2000


Election Results for Mark Kirk


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2000 40 IL R U.S. House District 10 Primary 1 19,717 31.4%
2000 40 IL R U.S. House District 10 General 1 121,582 51.2%
2002 42 IL R U.S. House District 10 Primary 1 47,477 100.0%
2002 42 IL R U.S. House District 10 General 1 128,611 68.8%
2004 44 IL R U.S. House District 10 Primary 1 37,764 100.0%
2004 44 IL R U.S. House District 10 General 1 177,493 64.1%
2006 46 IL R U.S. House District 10 Primary 1 36,115 100.0%
2006 46 IL R U.S. House District 10 General 1 107,929 53.4%
2008 48 IL R U.S. House District 10 Primary 1 44,685 100.0%
2008 48 IL R U.S. House District 10 General 1 153,082 52.6%
2010 50 IL R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 420,373 56.6%
2010 50 IL R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,778,698 48.0%
2016 56 IL R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 931,619 70.6%
2016 56 IL R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 2 2,184,692 39.8%


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



Ideology Data for Mark Kirk


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
2001 41 House 83 15 R 74 26 99 25 48
2002 42 House 85 15 R 82 18 99 20 76
2003 43 House 85 13 R 78 18 97 10 61
2004 44 House 80 15 R 58 30 94 47 63
2005 45 House 80 20 R 67 33 97 32 36
2006 46 House 77 20 R 82 18 97 45 54
2007 47 House 68 29 R 36 61 96 42 40
2008 48 House 72 26 R 52 47 98 58 48
2009 49 House 77 21 D 52 48 95 35 72
2010 50 House 60 17 D 29 46 70 15 70
2010 50 Senate 11 3 D 8 10 13 29 50
2011 51 Senate 76 20 D 58 35 95 20 60
2013 53 Senate 63 25 D 44 45 89 40 44
2014 54 Senate 81 15 D 65 33 96 26 64
2015 55 Senate 66 29 D 68 24 94 26 29
2016 56 Senate 61 36 D 52 35 94 30 33
Lifetime conservative rating:   53%


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.