RightDataUSA


Jeff Sessions

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 24, 1946 in Hybart, AL

Education:

  • Huntingdon College, B.A., 1969
  • University of Alabama, J.D., 1973

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army Reservs, 1975-1985

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Assistant U.S. Attorney, 1975-1977
  • U.S. Attorney for Southern AL, 1981-1993
  • U.S. Attorney General, 2017-2018

Elected Office:

  • AL Attorney General, 1994-1996


Election Results for Jeff Sessions


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1994 47 AL R Attorney General General 1 666,910 56.9%
1996 49 AL R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 82,373 37.8%
1996 49 AL R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary Runoff 1 81,622 59.3%
1996 49 AL R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 786,436 52.5%
2002 55 AL R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 792,561 58.6%
2008 61 AL R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 199,690 92.3%
2008 61 AL R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,305,383 63.4%
2014 67 AL R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 795,606 97.3%
2020 73 AL R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 2 227,088 31.6%
2020 73 AL R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary Runoff 2 216,452 39.3%


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



Ideology Data for Jeff Sessions


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
1997 50 Senate 100 0 99 1 D 56 43 99 0 100
1998 51 Senate 100 0 98 2 D 28 71 98 0 100
1999 52 Senate 94 6 94 6 D 24 76 98 0 100
2000 53 Senate 97 3 97 3 D 42 58 99 0 100
2001 54 Senate 91 5 R 96 4 96 5 96
2002 55 Senate 86 13 R 76 11 95 10 90
2003 56 Senate 98 2 R 98 1 99 0 90
2004 57 Senate 92 3 R 90 7 96 10 96
2005 58 Senate 97 3 R 82 11 98 0 100
2006 59 Senate 96 4 R 90 9 99 0 92
2007 60 Senate 90 8 R 85 14 97 10 83
2008 61 Senate 97 2 R 69 30 99 20 84
2009 62 Senate 91 3 D 40 55 95 6 96
2010 63 Senate 96 2 D 40 57 98 5 100
2011 64 Senate 93 5 D 52 44 98 5 90
2012 65 Senate 91 7 D 48 52 99 0 88
2013 66 Senate 94 5 D 33 66 99 10 88
2014 67 Senate 94 2 D 51 46 97 5 96
2015 68 Senate 94 5 D 36 62 99 5 92
2016 69 Senate 91 5 D 45 45 94 0 86
2017 70 Senate 6 0 R 5 0 6 0 50
Lifetime conservative rating:   93%


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.