RightDataUSA


Jon Tester

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 21, 1956 in Havre, MT

Education:

  • College of Great Falls, B.A. (music), 1978

Career:

  • Farmer
  • Music teacher

Elected Office:

  • Big Sandy school board, 1983-1992
  • MT Senate, 1999-2006 (President, 2005-2006)


Election Results for Jon Tester


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2006 49 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 65,757 60.8%
2006 49 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 199,845 49.2%
2012 55 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 88,720 100.0%
2012 55 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 236,123 48.6%
2018 61 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 114,948 100.0%
2018 61 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 253,876 50.3%


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



Ideology Data for Jon Tester


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
2007 50 Senate 83 16 R 35 64 99 95 16
2008 51 Senate 93 7 R 30 70 98 85 16
2009 52 Senate 91 8 D 97 3 99 90 13
2010 53 Senate 88 11 D 97 3 99 85 21
2011 54 Senate 87 13 D 89 10 99 80 10
2012 55 Senate 92 8 D 93 6 99 90 4
2013 56 Senate 90 10 D 96 4 99 80 12
2014 57 Senate 95 3 D 95 3 98 85 12
2015 58 Senate 88 12 D 80 19 99 85 8
2016 59 Senate 87 13 D 84 16 100 75 4
2017 60 Senate 86 13 R 52 46 99 70 4
2018 61 Senate 74 25 R 56 44 99 90 14
2019 62 Senate 90 10 R 46 54 100 95 5
2020 63 Senate 77 15 R 44 47 92 100 9
2021 64 Senate 97 3 D 93 7 99 80 21
2022 65 Senate 97 3 D 97 2 99 9
2023 66 Senate 88 8 D 100 15
2024 67 Senate 77 16 D 96
Lifetime conservative rating:   12%


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.