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Bridge Grades uses obective data to score Congress members on their ability to collaborate, build coalitions, and deliver consensus solutions.
Letter grades (A, B, C, F) identify “bridgers” from “dividers” based on what (1) politicians say (rhetoric) and (2) what they do (legislative records including bill authoring, sponsorship, voting records, and bi-partisan effectiveness).
Bridge Grades are deliberately non-ideological. It neither rewards nor punishes ideological beliefs.
2025 Bridge Grades in process and coming soon.
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Members of Congress earn Bridge Grades for each term they serve. Below are the Bridge Grades for the 118th Congress (2022-2024). We offer hearty congratulations to top bridgers from both parties who earned "A grades" for governing behaviors that bridge our country compared to those who divide it.
Bridge Grades for the 119th Congress are coming in mid-2025. Sign up to be the first to know.
Bridge Grades is a blended grading rubric that aggregates public data sources to assess members of Congress on four core dimensions: collaboration, coalition building, consensus solutions, and commitments to bridging. Bridge Grade utilizes six public sources and blends 12 metrics into a numerical Bridge Score indexed on a 100 point scale which then gets translated into letter grades.
Here's how we do it:
Step 1: We download and compile more than a dozen metrics from six public data sources.
Step 2: We apply a normal distrubtion to index each metric onto a 0-100 point scale.
Step 3: We apply weights to each of the metrics (some are weighed more than others) and then sum them into a subtotal.
Step 4: We multiply the subtotal by a factor to reward bridging bravery in districts where politicians represent hard leaning voting bases. This is like a “degree of difficulty” multiplier based the political lean of the voters they represent. The "bravery" multiplier only applies when the candidate’s party matches the lean of their voters. Maximum 10% bump.
Step 5: We apply a second set of multipliers to mitigate centrist bias. We believe a wide range of ideologies is good, but only when leaders embrace bridging behaviors. This adjustment rewards bridging behaviors by those with wider leaning ideologies (farther from the center). Maximum 10% bump.
Step 6: The adjusted total is, once again, normalized and a resulting Bridge Score is calculated on a 100 point index. A forced grading curve identifies the top half in each legislative body as Bridgers (grades As and Bs) and bottom half as Dividers (grades Cs and Fs). One standard deviation above the mean are As and one standard deviation below the mean are Fs.
NOTE: All raw data and corresponding disributions and points tallied can be downloaded using the "Get the data" link at the bottom of each table above. Click here to make sense of the fields in the downloadable data table.
The Polarization Research Lab whose America's Political Pulse captures data and measures politicians on categories including Policy Discussion, Constructive Debate, Personal Attacks, Accomplishments, and Bipartisanship / Compromise. Polarization Research Lab is “a research group and resource hub dedicated to applying science to the study of polarization and democracy. Founded on more than a decade of research by top scholars in the field at Dartmouth College, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania, PRL advances the study of partisan animosity by collecting data, testing new ideas through rigorous science, and sharing the data and findings with others."
The Common Ground Scorecard by Common Ground Committee - “a nonpartisan, non-profit group working to help citizens hold leaders accountable for progress and civil discourse.” The scorecard measures five dimensions and awards points on a 100 point scale.
The Lugar Bi-Partisan Index by the Lugar Center. This weighted index weighs bi-partisan bill authoring and sponsorship. In their words “a consistently low score on this index will be a very strong indication that a legislator is viewing his or her duties through a partisan lens. Conversely, a consistently high score is a strong indication that a legislator is prioritizing problem solving and open to working with the other party when possible."
GovTrack Report Cards. Rankings on legislator performance in authoring and co-sponsoring bi-partisan legislation in the previous congress. Specifically we include two measures: (1) authoring bills that attract co-sponsors from another party, and (2) co-sponsoring bills authored by a member from another party.
Cook Political PVI. This data scores congressional districts and states on how partisan their voting population is relative to national averages. We reward bridging behaviors by those who represent highly partisan voting districts as a “degree of difficulty.” This rewards bridging bravery by politicians who could otherwise resort to divider behaviors and still win re-election.
Voteview. Voteview.com allows users to view every congressional roll call vote in American history on a map of the United States and on a liberal-conservative ideological map including information about the ideological positions of voting Senators and Representatives.
Like the direction this is going? We think this is just the start. Bridge Grade is a constant work in progress, and will evolve and strengthen with more data and further refinements.
1. Please share this page to help get the word out about a new way to think about our politicians.
2. Please subscribe to our Substack newsletter.
3. If you can afford it, we would make good use of a tax-deductable contribution (we are also Donor Advised Fund eligible, as a project of Mediators Foundation).
4. Get in touch. Email us at bp @ bridgepledge.org with your thoughts, questions, or idea.
