GabTrack, an organization that tracks congressional voting records, has rescinded a 2019 rating that ranked then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as the most liberal member of the Senate after multiple outlets, including The Washington Post, cited the statistic in articles about Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
The website, which drew renewed attention following President Biden’s bold decision on Sunday to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, removed its 2019 rankings on Monday night, the website’s founder confirmed to The Washington Post.
In its single-year “report card” for 2019, GovTrack deemed her the most ideologically advanced of the Senate’s left-leaning members, based on her legislative actions.
She was further to the left than Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), the latter of whom usually holds left-leaning titles, including in the farthest-left districts. The latest metrics available from GovTrack.
The organization’s founder, Joshua Tauberer, who created the website when he was a college student in 2004, said the rankings in question were based on one calendar year and that the organization “did away” with these types of “report cards” several years ago.
“We determined that the limited data available over the course of a year, especially given the ebb and flow of the legislative calendar, is insufficient to create a reliable portrait of lawmakers’ activity and therefore would not be a useful tool for users or the American public,” he told the Post.
“We have subsequently removed the previously published statistics by calendar year for the same reasons.”
Tauberer warned in 2020 that GovTrac’s 2019 Harris rankings could not be trusted. He told The Washington Post At the time, it noted that this was “inconsistent with what other serious analyses of Ms. Harris’ record have found.”
“The short answer is, in my opinion, both could be true – she could sponsor/co-sponsor left-leaning legislation that is generally less risky, while at the same time taking a pragmatic approach to making riskier, more impactful decisions when the time comes,” he added at the time.
In 2019, Harris was just two years into her senator term and was seeking to run for president.
She attracted public attention, Medicare for All, Green New Deal, Ban on fracking, Decriminalizing illegal border crossings, Starting from scratch U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among others.
She has since backtracked on many of those positions, including clarifying her support for private health insurance.
But now that she has emerged as a leading Democratic presidential candidate, her 2020 campaign has given Republicans plenty of ammunition.
Former President Donald Trump and his allies have already been making use of GovTrack’s old ratings, and Republican candidates mentioned them at a recent rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Kamala Harris is the most liberal elected official in the history of America. Did you know that? She’s an ultra-liberal politician. It’s awful. You know, she’s more liberal than Bernie Sanders. Can you believe that?” Trump scolded.
Sanders himself has questioned the claim that she is more to the left than him.
“Probably not. It’s possible that Trump is lying for the 83,000th time. No, I don’t think so,” Sanders told CNN on Wednesday when asked about Trump’s comments.
Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick’s recent ad attacking Sen. Bob Casey (Democrat) featured footage of Harris smiling while answering a question about the rankings.
“Bob Casey endorsed the most liberal candidate in the history of our country,” McCormick, 58, quipped in an X post featuring the ad.
The rankings also figured prominently in Trump’s 2020 campaign after Biden announced Harris as his running mate.
Ann Internet Archive capture The July 9 GovTrack rating shows the old ranking. Now the website just says “Page not found.” Looking ahead to 2019 “Report card.”
