Kamala Harris was not ‘the most liberal senator’ — take conservatives' word for it

Every four years, it seems Republicans claim that the Democratic Party presidential or vice presidential nominee is “the most liberal senator” (just as they did for Barack Obama).

This year is no different. Many conservatives, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have argued that Kamala Harris was the nation’s most liberal senator during her four years (2017 to 2021) representing California.

“Kamala Harris is a dangerous liberal. She makes Joe Biden look competent and moderate by contrast,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) recently declared.

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“Kamala Harris will appoint hundreds of extreme far left judges to forcibly impose crazy San Francisco liberal values on Americans nationwide,” Donald Trump himself told a crowd of supporters last month.

To test this argument, I analyzed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)’s congressional ratings database, which in part uses American Conservative Union (ACU) system of ideological voting rates in Congress. (And yes, this is the same CPAC that conducts the annual convention near Washington, D.C., so beloved by Donald Trump’s MAGA acolytes.)

This is a database that I have used in my political science classes, as well as in academic publications that evaluate congressional voting records.

This research focuses on Sen. Kamala Harris’ last year in office: 2020. This gives her most recent voting score and her lifetime voting score, based on how she voted on a variety of bills before the Senate.

In 2020, Harris’ CPAC score was 9 out of 100, with 100 being the most conservative one could be and zero being as utterly lefty liberal as possible.

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CPAC ranks almost all Democrats as more liberal than their Republican counterparts — no surprise there.

But: Harris getting a score of nine tied her with Democrats such as Sen. Jon Tester of Montana — hardly a far-left icon — and then-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party shortly after her failed run for president in 2020, is now a favorite among some conservatives.

I also tested Harris’ score against all of her fellow Democrats to see if, indeed, she is “the most liberal” during her final year as a senator.

Of all the House of Representatives members and U.S. senators who were Democrats in 2020, Harris fell on the more conservative end of the spectrum — relatively speaking.

CPAC data reveal that the average score for Democrats in the Senate during 2020 was 7 out of 100. For the House, the average was 4 of 100.

This means that Harris’ voting habits were more in line with the most conservative Democrats than, say, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) or Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).

When I analyzed Harris’ overall voting record from 2017 to 2020, she finished with a four percent conservative score, according to CPAC.

Even by that measure, Harris is far from the most liberal member of the Senate, or Congress as a whole, during that period.

I found at least 26 members of the House and Senate with a voting record below 4 of 100, and 19 members of Congress with voting scores also with at least a 4 of 100. There may be more — full disclosure: this is a lot of data to wade through — and it doesn’t cover anyone who left office between 2017 and 2019.

So no, Kamala Harris was not the most liberal senator during her time in the Senate, according to one of the most conservative, Trump-loving organizations among conservative, Trump-loving organizations.

Let’s look at one vote Harris took on one of her final days in the Senate before becoming vice president.

The vote — taken on January 1, 2021 — was for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. It reads: “To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2021 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.”

Harris voted for it.

Does that make Harris a conservative for being pro-military, or an anti-conservative for voting for a lot of fiscal spending? Regardless of CPAC scores, if Harris had voted against it, would she be praised for fiscal restraint? Or would she be criticized for being anti-military? You be the judge.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Ga. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His “X” account is JohnTures2.