Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) was recently ranked one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate despite the moderate image she projects on the campaign trail.
The presidential hopeful is frequently described as a moderate and a pragmatist because of, among other things, her opposition to programs like Medicare for All and concerns about a socialist leading her party’s ticket.
But an annual ideology ranking from GovTrack.us ranked Klobuchar in the 92nd position on its conservative-to-liberal scale.
GovTrack.us, a nonpartisan publication, said it assigns a “liberal-conservative score to each member of Congress based on his or her pattern of cosponsorship.”
“In a nutshell, Members of Congress who cosponsor similar sets of bills will get scores close together, while Members of Congress who sponsor different sets of bills will have scores far apart,” the outlet explains.
Of the 47 Democrats in the Senate, Klobuchar was ranked the ninth most liberal during the 2019 legislative year. She was ranked more liberal than Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) as well as other progressives like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA).
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) was ranked the most liberal senator in 2019, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Klobuchar also ranked behind Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).
Klobuchar was listed as the 34th most liberal senator on the publication’s 2018 ideology ranking and was among the least liberal in its 2017 ranking – when former Sen. Al Franken was ranked the most liberal in the Senate.
On the other end of the spectrum, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mike Braun (R-IN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) were ranked the most conservative in the Senate in 2019.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) was ranked the ninth most liberal U.S. representative in 2019, surpassing Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14).
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Amy Klobuchar” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Woman needs a nose job.
I hope she loses big, then loses the next senate seat! She’s s liar