RightDataUSA


Jim Risch

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 3, 1943 in Milwaukee, WI

Education:

  • Attended Univerity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1961-1963
  • University of Idaho, B.S., 1965
  • J.D., 1968

Career:

  • Rancher
  • Partner in law firm
  • Ada County prosecutor, 1970-1974

Elected Office:

  • ID Senate, 1974-1989, 1995-2003
  • ID Lt. Governor, 2003-2006, 2007-2009


Election Results for Jim Risch


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2002 59 ID R Lt. Governor Primary 1 49,607 34.6%
2002 59 ID R Lt. Governor General 1 226,017 56.2%
2006 63 ID R Lt. Governor Primary 1 119,401 100.0%
2006 63 ID R Lt. Governor General 1 259,600 58.3%
2008 65 ID R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 80,743 65.3%
2008 65 ID R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 371,744 57.7%
2014 71 ID R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 119,209 79.9%
2014 71 ID R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 285,596 65.3%
2020 77 ID R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 200,184 100.0%
2020 77 ID R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 537,446 62.6%


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



Ideology Data for Jim Risch


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 66 Senate 95 5 D 46 51 99 10 96
2010 67 Senate 97 2 D 38 62 99 0 100
2011 68 Senate 97 2 D 43 49 95 10 95
2012 69 Senate 93 6 D 40 59 99 5 96
2013 70 Senate 96 1 D 25 72 98 0 92
2014 71 Senate 97 1 D 45 55 98 15 92
2015 72 Senate 98 1 D 41 57 99 0 96
2016 73 Senate 95 5 D 42 55 99 0 92
2017 74 Senate 99 0 R 97 3 99 0 84
2018 75 Senate 98 2 R 95 3 99 0 82
2019 76 Senate 98 0 R 97 3 98 0 86
2020 77 Senate 95 1 R 95 4 96 5 87
2021 78 Senate 85 6 D 41 59 93 0 78
2022 79 Senate 86 7 D 21 76 93 90
2023 80 Senate 81 4 D 90 78
2024 81 Senate 78 9 D 89
Lifetime conservative rating:   89%


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.