Bridge Grade is a data-oriented, transparent, independently governed sorting mechanism that scores politicians on their ability to bridge America.
Bridge Grade offers a letter grade (A, B, C, F) to identify “bridgers” from “dividers” based on observable behaviors including bill authoring, voting records, public statements, public appearances, funding sources, and ultimately their effectiveness in seeking pragmatic legislative solutions through demonstrating collaboration, consensus-orientation, and coalition-building.
Bridge Grade is deliberately anti-ideological. It neither rewards nor punishes ideological beliefs. Nor does it reward centrists.
We believe that a wide distribution of thought makes us strong, but only to the extent our leaders can sit with, listen to, and collaborate with those with opposing views. Bridge Grade measures such abilities.
Our First Generation Bridge Grade looks specifically at the 435 elected members of the 118th Congress in the 2022 elections.
We generated a score for every sitting Congressperson by combining three elements:
The result for every Congressperson is a First Generation Bridge Score ranging between -24.0 and +122.6. Congresspersons above the median Bridge Score (28.05) are considered bridgers (Grade A and B), and those below the median are dividers (Grade C and F). We grade on a curve. One standard deviation above the median gets an A grade. One standard deviation below gets an F grade. Math.
Here is a sortable table of Bridge Grades for the elected 118th Congress.
Using VoteView measures of ideology on the horizontal axis, and plotting the Bridge Scores on the vertical axis shows the full Congress on the chart.
The darkest purple dots across the top are the A grades. The darkest gray dots along the bottom are the F grades.
The distribution of First Generation Bridge Grades across both parties are shown in the table. At a glance, one can see that both parties harbor its fair share of bridgers and dividers.
You want see the names right?
Please remember this is just the 1st generation grading, and it should be expected that there might be false positives and false negatives in the lists. Still, we hope you can see the potential here as you eyeball the names of the top bridgers and top dividers from each party below.
At a glance, do you agree the first set of results is directionally promising? We think so, but it only improves from here. We are currently working on Second Generation Bridge Grade which will include more data sources and an ambition to provide grades for Senators and Governors ahead of the 2024 general elections.
This is where you can help. Please consider providing support - (1) join the pledge, (2) make a donation, and (3) invite your friends. Bonus points for reading this far.