Jim Nielsen's Ratings and Endorsements
All
Abortion
Agriculture and Food
Animals and Wildlife
Arts, Entertainment, and History
Business and Consumers
Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
Criminal Justice
Death Penalty
Defense
Drugs
Education
Elections
Employment and Affirmative Action
Energy
Environment
Executive Branch
Family
Federal, State and Local Relations
Foreign Affairs
Gambling and Gaming
Government Operations
Guns
Health and Health Care
Housing and Property
Immigration
Indigenous Peoples
Judicial Branch
Labor Unions
Legislative Branch
Military Personnel
National Security
Reproduction
Science
Senior Citizens
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Stem Cell Research
Technology and Communication
Trade
Transportation
Unemployed and Low-Income
Veterans
Women
Vote Smart displays all known interest group ratings for each candidate and official, regardless of issue or bias.
Keep in mind that ratings done by special interest groups often do not represent a non-partisan stance. In addition, some groups select votes that tend to favor members of one political party over another, rather than choosing votes based solely on issue concerns. Nevertheless, they can be invaluable in showing where an incumbent has stood on a series of votes in the past one or two years, especially when ratings by groups on all sides of an issue are compared. Website links, if available, and descriptions of the organizations offering performance evaluations are accessible by clicking on the name of the group.
With rare exceptions, Vote Smart displays interest group ratings as a 0-100 percentage. While many interest groups use percentages as ratings to begin with, please note that Vote Smart has translated some ratings to a percentage from a different rating system for consistency and ease in understanding. Please visit the group's website, email us at ratings@votesmart.org or call our Voter Information Hotline at 1-888-VOTESMART for more specific information.