RightDataUSA


Bobby Rush

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 23, 1946 in Albany, GA

Education:

  • Roosevelt University, B.A., 1974
  • University of Illinois, M.A., 1994
  • McCormick Theological Seminary, M.A., 1998

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1963-1968

Career:

  • Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, 1966-1968
  • Co-founder of IL Black Panthers, 1968
  • Insurance agent

Elected Office:

  • Chicago alderman, 1982-1992
  • Candidate for mayor of Chicago, 1999


Election Results for Bobby Rush


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1992 45 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 54,231 42.5%
1992 45 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 209,258 82.8%
1994 47 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 97,643 100.0%
1994 47 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 112,474 75.7%
1996 49 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 74,281 89.3%
1996 49 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 174,005 85.3%
1998 51 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 85,696 88.8%
1998 51 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 151,890 87.1%
2000 53 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 59,599 61.0%
2000 53 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 172,271 87.8%
2002 55 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 111,462 100.0%
2002 55 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 149,068 81.2%
2004 57 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 102,540 100.0%
2004 57 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 212,109 84.9%
2006 59 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 81,593 81.6%
2006 59 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 146,623 84.1%
2008 61 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 134,343 87.5%
2008 61 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 233,036 85.9%
2010 63 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 68,585 79.9%
2010 63 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 148,170 80.4%
2012 65 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 64,533 83.8%
2012 65 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 236,854 73.8%
2014 67 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 47,627 100.0%
2014 67 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 162,268 73.1%
2016 69 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 128,402 71.4%
2016 69 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 234,037 74.1%
2018 71 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 104,114 100.0%
2018 71 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 189,560 73.5%
2020 73 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 94,863 71.5%
2020 73 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 239,943 73.8%


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



Ideology Data for Bobby Rush


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
1993 46 House 2 95 93 1 D 76 19 93 95 0
1994 47 House 6 86 87 2 D 68 24 90 100 5
1995 48 House 9 82 88 2 D 83 11 88 100 4
1996 49 House 10 86 90 4 D 78 15 93 95 0
1997 50 House 31 67 90 5 D 76 20 94 100 4
1998 51 House 5 88 93 4 D 79 15 93 100 8
1999 52 House 91 2 D 78 17 86 100 0
2000 53 House 86 2 D 74 14 85 100 0
2001 54 House 83 7 R 23 67 89 94 10
2002 55 House 90 4 R 25 64 91 85 0
2003 56 House 91 3 R 15 80 91 95 8
2004 57 House 95 3 R 27 73 93 100 0
2005 58 House 93 3 R 20 80 91 100 4
2006 59 House 88 7 R 29 63 91 94 9
2007 60 House 96 2 R 4 95 94 100 0
2008 61 House 23 0 R 10 19 25 100 13
2009 62 House 93 3 D 97 3 92 100 0
2010 63 House 86 3 D 80 17 83 94 9
2011 64 House 88 3 D 81 16 90 100 0
2012 65 House 87 3 D 81 10 88 100 5
2013 66 House 63 3 D 43 7 65 100 5
2014 67 House 56 1 D 50 6 53 89 8
2015 68 House 89 2 D 81 7 84 95 0
2016 69 House 70 2 D 66 2 67 100 0
2017 70 House 73 1 R 8 58 73 95 10
2018 71 House 86 1 R 15 67 85 92 8
2019 72 House 97 0 R 4 94 94 95 0
2020 73 House 99 0 R 6 94 97 100 0
2021 74 House 100 0 D 100 0 100 100 0
2022 75 House 99 0 D 100 0 99 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   3%


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.