ACU Presents Awards to Top-Scoring Alabama Lawmakers at CPAC
Several Alabama state legislators were recognized at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week for their conservative voting records based on a just-released analysis from ACUF’s Center for Legislative Accountability. The American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF) analysis reveals Alabama voting more conservatively during the 2021 session, with Republicans voting with the conservative position an average of 79.94% of the time, compared to just 61.53% the prior session. The following members of the Alabama State Legislature earned an invitation to receive an award at CPAC for voting with the conservative position at least 80% of the time: Senate:Jack Williams (89%)Dan Roberts (87%)Randy Price (86%)Tom Butler (86%)Shay Shelnutt (86%)Tom Whatley (84%)Andrew Jones (83%)Steve Livingston (83%)Greg Reed (83%)Clay Scofield (83%)T J Waggoner (83%)Sam Givhan (82%)Gerald Allen (82%)Will Barfoot (82%)Clyde Chambliss (82%)Donnie Chesteen (82%)Garlan Gudger (82%)Tim Melson (82%)Arthur Orr (82%)David Sessions (82%)Chris Elliott (81%)Jim McClendon (81%)Larry Stutts (81%)Greg Albritton (80%) House:Andrew Sorrell (100%)Jim Carns (90%)Andy Whitt (89%)Chip Brown (86%)David Wheeler (86%)James Hanes (85%)Ben Robbins (85%)Ivan Smith (85%)David Standridge (85%)Bob Fincher (84%)Danny Garrett (84%)Mike Jones (84%)Corey Harbison (83%)Charlotte Meadows (83%)Margie Wilcox (81%)Rex Reynolds (81%)Matt Simpson (81%)Mike Holmes (80%)Gil Isbell (80%)Wes Kitchens (80%)Craig B Lipscomb (80%)Rhett Marques (80%)Connie Rowe (80%)Chris Sells (80%)Shane Stringer (80%)Rodney Sullivan (80%) Among the 44 roll call votes scored by the ACUF are the legislation making elections more secure (HB 167, HB 285), efforts to protect life (HB 237), legislation protecting women’s sports (HB 391), and efforts to restrict the Governor’s excessive COVID-19 emergency powers (SB 97). ACUF’s Ratings of Congress and Ratings of the States are initiatives of the American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF)’s Center for Legislative Accountability (CLA). These ratings are designed to reflect how more than 8,000 elected officials across the nation view the role of government while illustrating the differences between chambers of the legislature and revealing lawmakers’ positions across 186 policy areas that directly affect citizens.
Five members of Alabama delegation receive award for conservative excellence
The American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF) on Monday released its 47th Annual Federal Ratings of Congress. Five members of the Alabama delegation were awarded the ACUF’s Award for Conservative Excellence based on their voting records. Annually the ACUF — the sister organization of the American Conservative Union (ACU), the nation’s original conservative organization. For more than fifty years the ACU has educated and activated the conservative movement through its ratings programs, policy centers and educational events such as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the nation — produces a scorecard for members of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives based on their voting records. All members of Congress are issued a score while only members who received a score of 80 percent or higher receive an award. Awards were presented to — 1st District U.S. Rep. Bradley Bryne (92.15%); 4th District U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (83.6%); 5th District U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (90.13%); 6th District U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (100%); as well as former U.S. Sen. Luther Strange (81.82%) for his brief stint in the U.S. “In the 2017 session, we saw Republicans come together to pass the most important corporate tax reform in decades, confirm a true conservative in Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, and repeal the Obamacare individual mandate,” said ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp. “But conservatives must not rest on their laurels. This is not the time for four corners defense. Congress must pass a rescissions bill to eliminate wasteful spending in the omnibus and finally confirm highly qualified presidential nominees to critical positions.” This year some of the key issues ACU Foundation scored include: confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court repeal of Obamacare passage of comprehensive tax reform defunding of Planned Parenthood repeal of Dodd-Frank and key presidential nominations to cabinet positions. Widely regarded as the “gold standard” of conservative scoring, the ACU “Ratings of Congress” evaluated 21 key votes in the U.S. Senate and 25 key votes in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bills are selected cover a variety of issues and are designed to reflect how each individual views the role of government in another individual’s life. Some of the bill topics included are social and cultural, fiscal and economic, and national security. This year marks the ACU’s 47th year of rating key votes in Congress. Read each member’s individual score and breakdown below:
