Mavericks & Sycophants

Welcome

Most congressional scorecards measure how often a member votes with their party when the two parties disagree. That's useful, but it misses half the picture. When both party leaderships agree, those votes are typically invisible to standard analyses. The consensus deviation score captures how often a member breaks from bipartisan agreement — the moments when the Borg collectively wants a Yea, and someone votes No anyway. That dissent is factored into the overall Independence score.

This site tracks how often members of Congress vote as part of the two-headed Borg. Deviation is applauded in this framing, serving as an indicator of those voting their conscience rather than buckling to the whip.

Unlike other scorecards that use ostensibly positive labels such as "Party Loyalty" or "Ideological Alignment", we lean hard the other way and give a shout out to those who buck the trend.

If you're the type of person who thinks their party can do no wrong and always votes a straight ticket for the GOP or DNC, you might still find it useful as a straight loyalty tracker.

Methodology

• What's counted Recorded Yea and Nay votes cast by each member during the current Congress. Only votes where the member was present and voted decisively are included.
• What's omitted Abstentions, missed votes, paired votes, and procedural announced positions. Members with fewer than 30 recorded votes in the current Congress are omitted entirely — too few votes to produce a meaningful score.
• Partisan deviation On votes where the two parties split, how often did the member vote against their own party's majority?
• Consensus deviation On votes where both party majorities agreed, how often did the member break from that bipartisan consensus?
• Independence score The average of partisan deviation and consensus deviation, expressed as a percentage. Higher = more independent from leadership.
• Independents Members displayed as Independent are scored against the caucus they align with in Congress.