RightDataUSA


Jeff Merkley

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 24, 1956 in Myrtle Creek, OR

Education:

  • Stanford University, B.A., 1979
  • Princeton University, M.P.P., 1982

Career:

  • Presidential fellow, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1982-1985
  • National security analyst for Congressional Budget Office, 1985-1989
  • Portland Habitat for Humanity, 1991-1994
  • Director of housing development, Human Solutions, 1995-1996
  • President, World Affairs Council of Oregon, 1996-2003

Elected Office:

  • OR House, 1999-2008 (Speaker, 2007-2008)


Election Results for Jeff Merkley


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2008 51 OR D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 246,482 45.1%
2008 51 OR D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 864,392 48.9%
2014 57 OR D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 277,120 92.0%
2014 57 OR D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 814,537 55.7%
2020 63 OR D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 564,878 98.7%
2020 63 OR D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,321,047 56.9%


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



Ideology Data for Jeff Merkley


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
2009 52 Senate 97 2 D 95 4 99 100 4
2010 53 Senate 96 3 D 94 5 99 100 4
2011 54 Senate 97 2 D 88 8 98 95 5
2012 55 Senate 94 5 D 93 5 99 100 0
2013 56 Senate 96 4 D 95 4 99 90 4
2014 57 Senate 98 0 D 95 2 98 95 8
2015 58 Senate 98 0 D 86 12 99 100 4
2016 59 Senate 97 1 D 90 10 99 95 0
2017 60 Senate 99 0 R 18 81 99 100 0
2018 61 Senate 99 0 R 17 81 98 100 9
2019 62 Senate 98 2 R 22 78 99 100 0
2020 63 Senate 98 0 R 24 75 99 100 4
2021 64 Senate 99 1 D 93 7 99 100 3
2022 65 Senate 91 1 D 83 1 91 0
2023 66 Senate 90 2 D 96 8
2024 67 Senate 85 14 D 99
Lifetime conservative rating:   4%


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.